2025 French Open results: Jannik Sinner dominates Novak Djokovic, sets up showdown vs. Carlos Alcaraz in final

The 2025 French Open may go down as the official starting point for a new era of men’s tennis. It will be the first meeting in a grand slam final between the sport’s two ascendent stars: Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. 

Those two have won the last five grand slam titles and have combined for a perfect 7-0 record in grand slam finals, but someone’s 0 has got to go on Sunday at Roland-Garros. Their path to a final showdown continued on Friday as Alcaraz defeated Sinner’s countryman, Lorenzo Musetti, in the first semifinal and Sinner ousted the legendary Novak Djokovic in straight sets later in the evening (6-4, 7-5, 7-6(3)). 

Sinner was the heavy favorite over the veteran entering the semifinal, but Djokovic in the grand slams is always a different beast and figured to be a litmus test for the dominance of the world’s No. 1 player. On Friday, Sinner passed that test with flying colors as the 24-time major winner was simply overmatched by the 23-year-old star. 

Djokovic, once a dominant returner, had little in the way of response for Sinner in his service games, which gave him a razor thin margin for error. That used to be the stress Djokovic put opposing player’s under, but the 38-year-old found himself on the other end of that conundrum on Friday and could not come up with the answers. Sinner needed just one break to take the opening set without much stress, as he blew Djokovic away on serve.

There were still moments of brilliance from Djokovic, as we’ve come to expect over the years, as he and Sinner put on a show for the crowd at Court Philippe-Chatrier. 

However, in between those flashes were too many errors from the former top player in the world against the man who now holds that crown. While Djokovic picked up his first break of the match in the second set, Sinner was able to break Djokovic twice before holding serve in the final game to take it 7-5 and put himself on the precipice of his first French Open final. 

Between sets, Djokovic took a medical timeout to get treatment on his leg, causing concern we might see our second medical retirement of the day, but when he returned to the court, he continued doing his best to apply pressure to Sinner and make him work for a trip to the final. 

However, for every question Djokovic posed in the third set, Sinner found the answers. The world No. 1 fought off multiple break points, including three at 4-5, to stay in the set and eventually send it to a tiebreak. Sinner picked up the quick mini-break to go up 3-0, frustrating Djokovic with his incredible court coverage, with the 38-year-old eventually producing errors trying to just bring points to an end. Sinner would win the tiebreak 7-3 to finish off a straight set victory. 

For Djokovic, it’s his first straight sets loss in a grand slam match since Wimbledon in 2010 when he lost in three sets to Tomas Berdych. While he clearly still has plenty of game, he eventually succumbed to Sinner’s consistent pressure and couldn’t produce the brilliant shots required to overcome the steady onslaught from the young Italian star. 

Now, Sinner will look for his first grand slam title on a surface other than hard court and get him one step closer to the career grand slam. He already owns two Australian Open titles and one U.S. Open. To do so, he’ll have to overcome Alcaraz, who has been the lone thorn in his side since ascending to the top of the world ranking. 

Sinner has dominated everyone other than Alcaraz the last two years, going 91-3 against the rest of the ATP Tour since the start of 2024. But he is 0-4 against Alcaraz in that time, including a loss in last year’s French Open semifinals when he was up 2-1 in sets before losing in five. The two most recently met at the Italian Open final — also a clay court tournament — where Alcaraz won in straight sets.

While the two have dominated the sport over the last two years, this will be their first ever meeting in a grand slam final, and marks the first French Open final featuring the top two seeds in the men’s draw since Djokovic and Rafael Nadal met in 2020. If Sinner can win, he will be the first man not from Spain (Nadal, Alcaraz), Serbia (Djokovic) or Switzerland (Roger Federer) to win the French Open since 2004.