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3 hours ago
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Carlos Alcaraz had never done this before.
The burgeoning tennis superstar has already proven capable of almost anything on the court. But entering Sunday, the Spaniard had never come back from two sets down to win a match.
And on this stage, the French Open final at Roland Garros, against world No. 1 Jannik Sinner? Good luck.
Then there's the matter of this: In the third set, Alcaraz was down 3-5 and 0-40. Sinner had triple championship point.
At that point, Alcaraz's chances of winning the game, let alone the set, let alone the match, were almost zero.
But call him Comeback Carlos, because that's exactly what he did.
Alcaraz pulled out one of the most mystical displays of shot-making that the sport of tennis has ever seen.
Forehands and backhands, drop shots and deep corner winners, it didn't even matter what Alcaraz decided to play, because he was hitting everything masterfully.
Sinner still nearly held him off. He could've ended the match in the fifth set, but then Alcaraz forced a tiebreak, which he utterly dominated.
The first-to-10 tiebreaker was led 7-0 by Alcaraz before you could blink, and he polished it off after the septuple championship point at 9-2 with a ridiculous shot down the line that deserved every bit of this championship.
Alcaraz was the defending champion at Roland Garros, the heir apparent to Spanish legend Rafael Nadal's 14 major titles on this stage.
It didn't look like it'd be Alcaraz's day. It looked like Sinner would announce fully his return to the tennis world after his time missed earlier this year due to suspension.
But then Alcaraz decided he simply wasn't going to lose, or even hit a bad shot. He rose to a level that no one else on this planet, not even Sinner, has, and at the end of the second-longest major final ever, Alcaraz had delivered a comeback that may never be equaled and one that certainly will never be forgotten.
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