Carlos Alcaraz faces Jannik Sinner later today in the Italian Open final, in a match that will bring the tennis world to a standstill.
After all, these are the sport’s best two male players by some distance, with the 22-year-old’s recent performances reinforcing that notion as he is set to leapfrog Alexander Zverev to take the world number two spot.
In doing so, he has inadvertently set up another potentially mouth-watering clash in the French Open final, with Alcaraz and Sinner now poised to be on opposite sides of the draw.
However, before that, they have the small matter of a Masters 1000 final to contest.
Carlos Alcaraz looks ahead to Roland Garros
Speaking after his hard-fought semi-final victory over Lorenzo Musetti, attention for some already seems to be on the ultimate clay-court event on the tennis calendar.
After all, whilst the Italian Open and Madrid are prestigious and enthralling tournaments in their own right, it does feel like all clay-court roads lead to Paris.
Photo by Frey/TPN/Getty Images
One question, formed around Musetti’s admission that Alcaraz must be considered the favourite for Roland Garros, sought to get Alcaraz’s reaction to such a statement.
Unsurprisingly, he was keen to downplay that kind of talk with another final still to be played: ‘The thoughts of him that I’m the favourite of Roland Garros, it is great that someone like Lorenzo, who is top 10, seeing myself as the favourite of Roland Garros.
‘I say so many times, I don’t want to think about it. All I can say is, I’m feeling great. I have a lot of confidence right now.’
Sinner will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot after Jasmine Paolini beat Coco Gauff in the Italian Open final yesterday.
Carlos Alcaraz faces Jannik Sinner in Italian Open final
And what a match today’s meeting promises to be, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz to contest the biggest final of their rivalry thus far.
Having already faced off for the Beijing crown, in which the latter came out on top, it is the Spaniard who holds a slender lead in their head-to-head (six wins, four losses).
However, and rather surprisingly, it is instead Sinner who seems to be heading into the final in greater form after handing a bagel to both Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul with some frighteningly relentless hitting.
It is impossible to call which way this tie could fall, but with these two, one thing is always certain: this match will be an absolute blockbuster, and if the stars align, they could repeat it in the French Open final too.