Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner showed themselves as the top two players on the ATP Tour at Roland Garros.
Alcaraz beat Sinner in a five hour and 29 minute Roland Garros final, to defend his title at the Parisian major and lift his fifth Grand Slam overall.
This match has been lauded as one of the greatest matches of all time, but Alcaraz has picked another match instead.
Alcaraz and Sinner have now won the last six majors, but there is potentially one ATP player that could challenge them in the future.
Adriano Panatta says Lorenzo Musetti is the only player capable of stopping Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
Sinner has made history for his country when he won the Australian Open last year, as he became the first Italian man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros in 1976.
Since Sinner returned to tennis, he has reached back-to-back finals against Alcaraz, and Panatta told Tuttosport that he thinks there is only one player that can compete with them.
That player is Sinner’s compatriot Lorenzo Musetti, who reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the first time this year and is currently at a career-high of world number six.
While Panatta mentioned the likes of Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Jack Draper, he dismissed their chances of challenging Sinner and Alcaraz on a consistent basis.
“Alcaraz and Sinner are one or two steps above all the others so we have to get used to seeing them almost always in the final because I don’t see who can beat them,” said Panatta.
“The only one is perhaps Musetti because he is the one with the most talent of all the others and in my opinion, in the future, he could be the one who will cause them problems, if obviously he manages to improve something more in his game and his performance.
“Also because Djokovic is of a certain age, even if he has shown his calibre by playing until the end with Sinner in the semi-final. I don’t see how Zverev can worry them while Draper is a good player but he doesn’t convince me too much so I think Lorenzo could be the only one capable of stopping them.”
While Musetti is said to be the next contender for Sinner and Alcaraz, he has only won one of his nine previous meetings against the top two ranked players on the ATP Tour.
This includes the Roland Garros semi-finals, where Musetti was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz after retiring with an upper left leg injury.
Adriano Panatta explains how he felt seeing Jannik Sinner after his defeat to Carlos Alcaraz
Roland Garros was the first time that Sinner had lost in the final of a major tournament, with Alcaraz saving three championship points to beat the world number one.
Despite being disappointed at being unable to win his first Roland Garros title, Sinner was praised for something he did after the final.
When discussing how he felt watching his compatriot after the match, Panatta admitted that he could empathise with Sinner.
“When I saw him sitting at the end of the match with his eyes a little lost, it made me feel tender because we have all been through a defeat like that and certainly when it happens in a Grand Slam final it hurts even more, but you keep going because this is the job of a tennis player,” explained the 74-year-old.
Jannik Sinner of Italy looks dejected following the Men’s Singles Final match on Day Fifteen of the 2025 French Open at Roland Garros.
Sinner will look to move on from this Roland Garros final defeat, as he moves on to the grass court season.
The world number one is first scheduled to defend his title in Halle, before he heads to Wimbledon as a former semi-finalist.
