He is the only player to have ever beaten Carlos Alcaraz in a five set match at a Grand Slam tournament

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Carlos Alcaraz has improved his five set record at Grand Slams after beating Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros final.

Alcaraz saved three championship points to beat world number one Sinner, enabling him to defend his Roland Garros title.

After winning his fifth major title at just 22 years old, Alcaraz has been congratulated by Rafael Nadal and many others.

The Roland Garros final has been praised by many, with some suggesting that Alcaraz and Sinner played one of the greatest matches ever.

While the Spaniard was able to come out on the winning end against Sinner, Alcaraz has not won every match that went the distance.

The only player to have beaten Carlos Alcaraz in a five set Grand Slam match

Alcaraz’s victory over Sinner made it the first time that he had come from two sets to love down to win a five set match.

The Murcian had lost all eight of his previous attempts to come from two sets to love down, including his only previous five set defeat to Matteo Berrettini at the 2022 Australian Open.

Berrettini was the seventh seed at the Australian Open in 2022, having reached the Wimbledon final the year prior, while Alcaraz was just 18 years of age at the time and was the 31st seed in Melbourne.

Despite being the younger player, Alcaraz had won his only previous meeting against Berrettini at the Vienna Open in 2021.

However, it was Berrettini who took an early two sets to love lead, before Alcaraz fought back to force a deciding fifth set.

This deciding set went all the way to a tie-break, where Berrettini would come out on top after beating Alcaraz, 6-2 7-6(3) 4-6 2-6 7-6(5).

This was the first time that Alcaraz had suffered a defeat in a five set match, but in his post-match press conference admitted that he was taking the positives and felt like he was getting closer to the top players.

“Yes. I mean, when I’ve played against the top players, apart against Rafa, I was close,” Alcaraz said at the time. “I think I have the level to play against the top players. I’m getting close, getting closer every tournament that I’m playing.

“That’s the point, no, to be able to be part of the top players, and I think I’m really close of that. I think, as I said, I have the level. I am playing really well. So I think that I’m ready for that.”

This claim proved to be true, as later that year Alcaraz won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.

All of Carlos Alcaraz’s five set matches at Grand Slams

After his latest victory in the Roland Garros final, Alcaraz has now won 13 of his 14 five set matches, with his aforementioned defeat to Berrettini the only time that he has not come out on top.

The first time that Alcaraz played a five set match at a Grand Slam was in 2021, when Alcaraz beat lucky loser Yasutaka Uchiyama to claim his first ever victory at Wimbledon.

Alcaraz’s victory over Sinner in the Roland Garros final was his third five set victory over his Italian rivalry, following the 2022 US Open quarter-final and 2024 Roland Garros semi-final.

Three of Alcaraz’s five Grand Slam final victories have also been in five sets, with his others coming against Novak Djokovic (Wimbledon 2023) and Alexander Zverev (Roland Garros 2024).

Wimbledon will be the next possible opportunity for the world number two to improve his five set record, with Alcaraz the two-time defending champion at the grass court major.