Carlos Alcaraz had to do something for the first time in his career against Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros final.
Alcaraz beat Sinner in the Roland Garros final on Court Philippe-Chatrier, coming from two sets to love down and saving three championship points.
This final lasted nearly five and a half hours, with Alcaraz’s victory over Sinner called one of the greatest in history.
Although Sinner led this match, Alcaraz’s victory has continued a familiar theme in their rivalry that is similar to something that once happened to Roger Federer.
Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty ImagesWhat Carlos Alcaraz is currently doing to Jannik Sinner is just like what happened to Roger Federer in 2006
After Sinner won his first grass court match of the season against Yannick Hanfmann, it means that he has now won 48 of his last 51 matches.
However, the only player he has lost to since the Cincinnati Open in 2024 is Alcaraz, who beat Sinner for the third time in the Roland Garros final.
Sinner once led the rivalry 4-3 in October 2023, but Alcaraz has now won their last five meetings to take a 5-4 lead in their head-to-head.
This draws some similarities with Federer, who had won 55 of his first 59 matches in the 2006 season.
Rafael Nadal was the only player to have beaten Federer during that time, winning all four of their matches up to that point in 2006.
Federer won the 2006 Australian Open, but was beaten by Nadal in the final of Roland Garros in their fourth match that year.
When did Roger Federer end his losing run against Rafael Nadal?
Federer would reach his third Grand Slam final of the season at Wimbledon, where he was the three-time defending champion.
However, Federer would come up against Nadal once again, with their recent head-to-head threatening his chances of winning a fourth Wimbledon title in a row.
This was not to be the case, as Federer ended his losing run against Nadal to win his fourth Wimbledon title, winning 6-0 7-6(5) 6(2)-7 6-3.
After beating his rival, Federer spoke in his post-match press conference about how much it meant to him to finally beat Nadal.
“I’m very well aware of how important this match was for me,” Federer said at the time. “If I lose, obviously it’s a hard blow for me. He wins French, Wimbledon, back to back. I was twice in the finals. That already hurt alone, but it was still great tournaments for me.
“It’s important for me to win a finals against him for a change and beat him for a change. At Wimbledon I knew it was gonna be the place for me to do it the easiest way. Turned out to be tough and it shows how much he’s improved over maybe an entire year.
“But maybe, you know, I had the pressure he had at the French Open, you know. I was trying to break his clay court streak there. He tried to break my grass court streak here. I think it was kind of tough to play each other again.”
This should be an encouragement to Federer, who later went on a five-match winning streak against Nadal between 2015 and 2017.
With Federer and Nadal now retired, their head-to-head finished with the latter leading 24-16.