Great sport is all about rivalry. In the 70s and 80s, tennis had Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, who played against each other a whopping 80 times, 60 of them in finals. In the last half-century, men’s tennis has been lucky to have Björn Borg and John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and McEnroe, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and any combination you choose of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Now we have Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz and Sinner have played each other 12 times, with Alcaraz leading 8-4 after winning their incredible match in the French Open final last month, when the Spaniard saved three match points before triumphing in an epic five-setter. Like all great rivalries, these two men bring out the best in each other and their Paris match is already being talked of as one of the greatest of all time.
