“The whole world stopped and watched that match”: Tennis stars name 2025 best match, featuring Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

The 2025 season is coming to a close, with players giving their final push to achieve various objectives. Some players are only looking to win some silverware before the end of the season, whereas others have bigger goals, something like playing in the ATP and WTA Finals.

The year 2025, just like every year, will be remembered for some incredible tennis from some of the best players in the world. Some of those players featured recently in a video on The Tennis Channel. All of those were asked to give their verdicts about the five best matches in 2025.

While there were significant differences in deciding on the top five, four, and three matches in 2025, there were similar views regarding which one would have been described as the best match of the year. Out of the nine participants in the video, seven named the French Open final between Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the best match of the year.

The players who agreed that the Alcaraz and Sinner final at the French Open was the number one match of the year included Australia’s Alex de Minaur, Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, America’s Frances Tiafoe, Italy’s Jasmine Paolini and Britain’s Emma Raducanu.

That match lasted more than five hours and officially became the second-longest final in the history of Grand Slams. In the end, it was Alcaraz who came out on top in a five-set thriller with a score of 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6. In that contest, in the fourth set, Alcaraz managed to save three championship points and then broke Sinner’s serve in the next game to take the set to the tiebreak, where he managed to win it and took the match to the fifth set.

“Obviously, number one,” said De Minaur while referring to the match. “Everyone is going to agree. So that’s my easiest pick.” Musetti agreed by saying: “I have to say, by far [the best match of the year[, honestly. It was the perfection of tennis. Fernandez echoed the other two. She stated that she felt like the whole world stopped and watch the match. “Definitely the Alcaraz, Sinner final,” said Fernandez. “I feel like the whole world stopped and watched that match.”

Fernandez’s countryman Auger-Aliassime was of the opinion that the way match went on, it felt like a ‘movie stuff’. “Probably everybody’s number one is the Roland Garros final this year,” said Auger-Aliassime. “I mean it was the movie stuff, pretty much.” Italy’s Paolini stated that she picked that match because of the crazy level of tennis played by both players. “This was an amazing match,” said Paolini. “Probably the match of the year. A Grand Slam final, fifth set, something crazy the level played, for I don’t know how many hours but I think that was a lot. So congrats to both of them.”

America’s Tiafoe stated that the match would be ‘one of the best matches of all time’. “The best match of the season, no question and it will be one of the best matches of all time, to be honest,” he said. “These two went at it for five hours and 26 minutes. No bathroom breaks. Just work. Inspiring stuff.”

Two players, however named other matches as the best match of 2025. America’s Amanda Anisimova named the Alcaraz, Sinner final as the second-best match of the year and picked her win over world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal of Wimbledon as the best match of the year. “And then obviously. Self explanatory means me,” she said while picking her win over Sabalenka where she came out on top with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

America’s Madison Keys picked her Australian Open triumph as the best match of 2025. She defeated Sabalenka in the final with a score of 6–3, 2–6, 7–5. “And the number one for obvious reasons,” said Keys while picking her win as the best match of the year. “I don’t think anyone is totally surprised. But as you can see. We are for the girls.”