Cabeza, corazon, cojones: How Carlos Alcaraz won the greatest tennis match ever played

This was better than Roger versus Rafa. This was tennis from a higher place. Long live the greatest new rivalry in sport.

This was better than Roger versus Rafa. This was tennis from a higher place. Long live the greatest new rivalry in sport. This was as good as it gets.

Carlos Alcaraz’s French Open triumph over Jannik Sinner was a masterpiece. It was like trying to separate Vincent van Gogh from Leonardo da Vinci, or Ludwig van Beethoven from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or William Shakespeare from Herman Melville. Nothing between any of ’em on canvas, piano, page or court, and in the end the scoreboard at Roland Garros looked like the numbers on Alcaraz’s next Nike contract: 4-6 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (10/2).

This was five hours and 29 minutes of enchanting skill, thunderclap power, butterfly touch, superhuman fitness, exquisite sportsmanship and spine-tingling showmanship. This trumped Rafael Nadal’s prosaic five-set Wimbledon victory that made Roger Federer’s Wilson gently weep in 2008. This was the greatest tennis match ever played.

The combatants received the sort of prolonged, heartfelt and appreciative standing ovation normally reserved for the players on stage at Theatre-Francais on Place du Avenue de l’Opera.

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after winning the men’s singles final of the French Open. Picture: AP

Alcaraz won in fittingly spectacular fashion, he won with a flourish, with a running, full-stretch, full-steam-ahead Superman forehand that left him spreadeagled on Court Philippe-Chatrier, with clay on his shirt, and with lightning in his veins, and with a vamos in his heart, after surviving a soul-stirring, jaw-dropping, sleep-depriving (in Australia) battle between arguably the two best blokes on tour.

Spain’s national football teams – men’s and women’s – are called The Red Fury. Alcaraz is a one-man Red Fury. From two sets down against the white-hot artistry of the imperious Sinner, and facing three match points in the third set, Alcaraz conjured a triumph that felt like a miracle.

“I feel the same,” he said. “Honestly, it was just playing with the heart, always fighting, every point. I don’t even know what I had to do or what I just did. Three match points down and he served for the match, I think I just played with the three C’s. They were what my grandfather taught me to do. All I could do was play with a positive mind and with heart and with the three C’s.”

Alcaraz’s three C’s start with Cabeza and Corazon. The head and the heart. The third C? “Cojones! I have to say it!” he grinned after the ballsiest performance of his career.

He was so knackered he limped to the stage to make a speech that included a touching tribute to Sinner. We thought nothing would match Roger and Rafa for rivalry but they’ve barely had time to flop in their retirement hammocks before another rivalry has popped up between contrasting players and personalities who complement each other perfectly.

“I’m sure you are going to be champion not once but many, many times,” Alcaraz told Sinner. “It is a privilege to share the court with you in every tournament, making history with you.
“You are a huge inspiration for the young kids, for everyone, for myself as well. I have to say thank you for being a great inspiration.”

Alcaraz, right, and Jannik Sinner are joined in greatness after an epic French Open men’s singles final. Picture: AP

Cabeza. Corazon. Cojones. It was fire versus ice, yin versus yang, five earthquake sets in which they hit the cover off the ball time after time, point after point, set after set, hour after hour.

Without a deciding tiebreaker, it might have dragged on as long as the federal election contest for the seat of Bradfield. Alcaraz oozed the bravado and charisma of a Spanish bullfighter. You could put him in a cape and it wouldn’t look ridiculous. Sinner was the epitome of Italian grace and elegance. He could play in a tailored white suit.

“Amazing performance, amazing battle, amazing everything,” Sinner told Alcaraz. “I won’t sleep very well tonight … but that’s okay.”

They fought tooth and nail with zero temper tantrums, zero hounding of the umpire or lines officials, zero disrespect towards ball kids. They have a deep respect for the traditions of their sport and their opponents. They are everything Nick Kyrgios could have been if he’d really wanted to be.

Kyrgios was dead wrong when he thought he was god’s gift to tennis, when he reckoned fans wanted aggro, expletives, explosions, smashed racquets, blood feuds and sledging.

What everyone really wanted was another round of Roger and Rafa. Two crazily gifted, ruthlessly competitive, ambitious yet beautifully humble players who don’t carry on like pork chops. And here they are. Carlos and Jannik. We’ll end up being on first-name terms.

“To put this match into words is honestly really difficult,” Alcaraz said. “To be two to love down against the No.1 player in the world, and the level he was playing was unbelievable, honestly I just poured my heart into it and hoped for the best.

Alcaraz celebrates with the ball kids after his victory. Picture: Getty Images

“I just thought I would put my best tennis into the third and fourth sets and we’ll see. I wasn’t thinking about the result, I wasn’t think about anything. I just wanted my best tennis. It was just about fighting, fighting, point after point, and then at the end of the fifth set, it was playing with heart and I think I did it great.”

Alcaraz was down among the dead men at 3-5, 0-40 in the bullfight of a fourth set. The fat lady grabbed the microphone and cleared her throat. Bookies prepared to pay out. You could’ve sworn it was over, but you know what Alcaraz did? He marched towards his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, shook his racquet like a tambourine and shouted, “Vamos!”

The wonderfully mad and irrepressible bugger thought he was still in it. Then he saved the first match point by winning a long and nerve-shredding baseline rally. Vamos. Caboza.

Then he saved the second match point with an aggressive second serve that kicked like a mule. Vamos. Corazon.

Then he saved the third match point by dominating a forehand shootout worthy of pistols at dawn. Vamos. Cojones.

Adrenaline and momentum was on the side of the swashbuckling Spaniard and the wonderfully mad and irrepressible bugger rode it all the way home.

You’d have a tough time picking a winner between van Gogh and da Vinci, or Beethoven and Mozart, or Shakespeare and Melville, all virtuosos and not a brushstroke, piano key nor penstroke between them, and poor young Sinner won 193 points to Alcaraz’s 192 in what might have been a split decision if tennis matches were subjectively judged.

Andre Agassi, right, consoles Sinner. Picture: AP

The certainty was that there had never been a match like it.

John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg formed the ultimate rivalry until Federer and Nadal came along. Now even they’re looking old hat.

“These two guys right now, Alcaraz and Sinner, it’s like when you watch the NBA and you say nobody could be better than Michael Jordan,” McEnroe said during his TNT commentary duties. “The tennis level right now is higher than I’ve ever seen,”

Ex-world No.1 and three-time French Open champion Mats Wilander added: “The level at the end was absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe we have this rivalry.

“They’ve taken our sport to another level. I never thought I’d say that after the big three – Roger, Rafa and Novak – but it’s actually faster than ever.

“I’ve seen Federer and Nadal and they played a couple of good finals but nothing comes close to this.

“I thought, ‘This is not possible.’ They’re playing at a pace that is not human. These are two of the best athletes the human race can put forward and they happen to be tennis players. I’m not speechless often … but what a wonderful day.”