I’ve seen the future of tennis. It’s Sinner v Alcaraz

Back in 1961, the famous New York Times writer Robert Sheldon saw a warm-up act at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, and wrote a review about an unknown singer called – checks notes – “Bob Dylan”.

Citing his “searing intensity,” and his stunning “originality and inspiration, all the more noteworthy for his youth,” Sheldon famously observed ”it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up”. It is often cited as the most prescient review of all time, the one that picked early that Dylan would dominate the music scene for a generation.

Watching this Wimbledon men’s singles final, however, one needed no such prescience, no such expert insight, to offer up the bleeding obvious.

Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz – meeting in the final of a major for just the second time, after their epic, record-breaking battle at Roland Garros just last month, and won by Alcaraz – will, individually and often as a duo, dominate tennis majors for years to come. And those who thought we’d never see ever again the likes of the rivalry between the retired Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, let alone the fading Novak Djokovic, must think again.

What a match! What an atmosphere! What a sheer, epic contest between two young titans in a suddenly elevated titanic tennis age. So brilliant were they, the fascination was not just who would win, but just how wonderfully their skills countered each other, to make so many points epic contests in themselves.

For it was not just the extraordinary array of classic tennis skills they brought to this marvellous green stage. It is the other talents that sheer take the breath away. With both players regularly hitting forehands and blistering backhands of over 160km/h, and serves so fast they could be booked for speeding on open freeways, they both had the punch that would have done Muhammad Ali proud. Could Usain Bolt move as fast around the court as these two with tennis racquet in hand, the way they do? I doubt it. Time and again, Alcaraz unleashed a curious kind of chip shot lob, with backspin and just over Sinner’s reach, that Tiger Woods would be proud to call his own.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner embrace after the final.Credit: Getty Images

Sinner, particularly, showed a capacity to – from behind the baseline – hit drop shots that landed just over the net, and landed with little more bounce than a dry meat pie on a cafeteria floor. If Alcaraz didn’t possess the speed of the aforesaid Bolt, and the escape skills of Harry Houdini, he never would have got close to them, let alone hit many of them back for winners. You get the drift. For every punch, a counter-punch. For every thrust, a parry. For every parry, came something we had rarely seen before.

And then there is the different way they interacted with the people that matter to them.

With Alcaraz, those people are clearly ... us. All of us. Everyone. Todo el mundo. A natural showman, an entertainer like mother used to make, his most breathtaking shot of all came on the final point of the first set.

After Sinner hit what would have been a cannoning cross-court winner against just about any other player in the world, Alcaraz not only reached it in extremis, he controlled it, and with his back turned still dropped it back over the net on that pocket-handkerchief of space Sinner didn’t have covered and couldn’t get to. First set, Alcaraz, 6-4. And here was the entertainer. Cupping his hand to his ear, he was effectively saying to us, “Just how GREAT am I? Have you ever seen anything LIKE it?”

Magic man … Carlos Alcaraz.Credit: AP

And the crowd responded with a throaty roar.

No, Carlos! Non!, Nein! Nyet! We’ve never seen anything like it. You are el hombre, the man!

Sinner is not like that. While some Italians might be famous for the ease with which they share their emotions, Sinner is cool, bordering on cold; emotionless, bordering on dead – with one exception. That was to his player’s box. His parents. His team, led by Australia’s Darren Cahill, who is his coach.

When struggling against Alcaraz, Sinner looked to his box. When he did something brilliant, he looked to his box, very occasionally clenching his fist.

Jannik Sinner reacts after winning a point.Credit: AP

Alcaraz looked to everyone’s box, and everyone there, with the crowd boasting the likes of Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, Lleyton and Bec Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg, the Prince and Princess of Wales and two of their children – an entranced Princess Charlotte and an uncomfortable looking Prince George, obliged to sit in the hot sun in a suit and tie, though just twelve years old.

When Sinner took the next two sets, 6-4, 6-4, we all knew what was coming.

Of course Alcaraz would win the fourth going away to set up a classic fifth set, just like they fought in Paris.

But again, they demonstrated a capacity to surprise.

Sinner strengthened. Alcaraz struggled. The Italian went to a 5-4 lead, with his serve, up 40-0. Three match points.

Last time that happened, in Paris, Alcaraz stared them down, and went on to win the match. The crowd willed that to happen this time, too, and the chant went up: “Carlos! Carlos! Carlos!”

He lifted and held off the first match point. It’s happening again! It’s happening aga…

Oh. Sinner unleashed a serve down the T-bone that Alcaraz couldn’t return.

It was victory for the Italian, to make 1-1 in majors, between them, and Sinner’s first Wimbledon victory. Now, he showed real emotion, even doing “a Pat Cash” to climb into the stands to embrace those in his box. I’m not sure if he noticed the rest of us, but we were all giving a sincere standing ovation to the two of them.

It felt like a great second chapter in what will be a long and enthralling novel.

Bravo.

Bravissimo, to the two of them. A new tennis age has begun, and it’s a beauty.