Witnessing History: The 2025 Roland-Garros Final
The Roland-Garros final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner was, indisputably, historic. Anyone who witnessed the spectacle, whether in person, on TV, or, in my case, on a phone screen in a hotel room, is a part of something larger than their individual experience. Many observations have been stated and restated with regard to this match. Still, some of these facts are worth mentioning here:
- Alcaraz has never lost a Grand Slam final. This was Sinner’s first loss in a Grand Slam final.
- This Roland-Garros final was the first between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the first- and second-ranked players in men’s tennis whose rivalry predates their top 10 success.
- Sinner’s record is now 47-3 in his last 50 matches, all three defeats coming at the hands of Alcaraz.
- The match was the longest final in Roland-Garros history at 5 hours and 29 minutes, eclipsing the previous record of 4 hours and 42 minutes set in 1982.
- The final is the second longest in Grand Slam history.
- Sinner and Alcaraz played the first final between two players born in the 2000s. Only one final has ever taken place between players born in the 1990s, which was the 2020 US Open final.
Countless articles make pages out of the bullet points above. The match itself deserves infinite pieces dedicated to its analysis and wider context. This article, though, takes a different approach. The Roland-Garros final of 2025 is a building block in the construction of the narrative that is tennis in the Open Era. I aim to highlight the importance of sports at large in a Western society that is increasingly less reliant on ritual practices. In the context of the 2025 Roland-Garros final, tennis transcends its status as a sport. It transforms into a collection of symbolic rituals and a vehicle for an ever-evolving narrative, reaffirming community, preserving cultural memory, and offering individuals stability and meaning through repetition.
Sports as Forms of Ritual Practice
In Byung-Chul Han’s 2019 book, The Disappearance of Rituals, Han defines rituals as “symbolic acts. They represent, and pass on, the values and orders on which a community is based. They bring forth a community without communication.” Using this definition, sports can be described as symbolic acts, an assembly of rituals. Whether it’s thousands sitting down to watch a match, or dozens showing up to play pickup football at the park, sports elicit a collective emotional response. Like with religious or political communities, sporting communities are sustained not through direct communication between individuals but rather through collective participation that creates a shared set of values. Tennis is governed by its own set of rules and parameters for involvement, providing structure and rhythm for participants in the sport.
The meaning of tennis is strengthened by the development of cultural narratives. By labeling Alcaraz and Sinner’s rivalry as an heir to historic rivalries of the past (Federer and Nadal), the mere act of their playing becomes history. Sports are symbols in their own right, created not only for entertainment or exercise, but to give life meaning. The 2025 Roland-Garros final was not only notable for its athletic quality, but for its symbolic significance in tennis history. Tennis is not solely reliant on the exercise of athletic competition. The sport itself is a continuous narrative, a story that is added to by players, journalists, and fans in (relatively) equal measure.
As Han states, sporting values are “passed on.” The cultural, communal, or familial support for a particular team or sport gives people a sense of identity and belonging. This connection can expand far beyond the reaches of personal relationships. Individuals who participate in, or follow any global sport find themselves among a worldwide community of believers. When two individuals discuss the UWCL final between Arsenal and Barcelona, they construct a shared memory, even if they watched the match on separate continents. When a tifoso spots someone wearing a Ferrari jacket across the street, they experience an unspoken connection. Sports preserve the established traditions that offer stability and identity for local communities, while also fostering new communities that harbor empathy and cross-cultural understanding. Tennis is no different and figures such as Alcaraz and Sinner have become especially significant. Their narratives will play a crucial role in constructing the sport’s global popularity for the coming decades. Their talent, rivalry, and symbolic presence foster a renewed sense of camaraderie within and around the sport.
Kierkegaard’s “Repetition” in Tennis
In a subsequent section of The Disappearance of Rituals, Han quotes from Søren Kierkegaard’s work Repetition: A Venture in Experimental Psychology. Kierkegaard describes his concept of repetition versus recollection, stating “because what is recollected has already been and is thus repeated backwards, whereas genuine repetition is recollected forwards.” Han explains that Kierkegaard’s idea of repetition is a forward-looking recognition, an expectation that what has happened will happen again. In contrast, recollection is static. It involves remembering a past event that will never happen again.
Kierkegaard’s concept of repetition is particularly apparent in tennis. The tennis calendar is cyclical, offering opportunities for new champions to be made and new narratives to be written. The nature of tennis positions new players to fill in for one another within the grand narrative of the sport as the years progress. In every era, there will be a hero, a villain, and an anti-hero. There will always be a great rivalry and there will always be a “Greatest of All Time.” As players come and go, there is peace in understanding that what has passed will come again. As tennis journalist Catherine Whitaker noted on The Tennis Podcast:
“[Alcaraz and Sinner’s rivalry] is another reminder of the most beautiful thing about sport, and this sport in particular… and the way it renews… One day, Alcaraz and Sinner will have retired, but someone will come along in their shoes. It’s the most revitalizing, comforting thing in a world full of uncertainty and endings…”
Repetition enables cycles to complete while the narrative continues to expand. We can feel satisfied with endings because we know that what once was shall return. Andy Roddick reflects on this continuity in his podcast Served: “How do you make real a lot of the virtues that Rafa has and that we said goodbye to are fully represented by Coco [Gauff], by Carlos [Alcaraz], by Jannik Sinner?” In other words, Roddick emphasizes that it is easier to come to terms with the retirement of 14-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal because his legacy endures in the players who succeed him.
Continuity, Myth, and Meaning
Sports are stabilizing forces. They give life meaning through their continuity. Han states that “In life, things serve as stabilizing resting points. Rituals serve the same purpose. Through their self-sameness, their repetitiveness, they stabilize life. They make life last.”
Those who engage with sports can measure the progression of their lives through the records they have watched fall, the dissolution and subsequent rebuilding of a team, and the retirement of a favorite player. Sports are often grouped with other cultural phenomena like television, film, and short-form algorithm-driven media. Nevertheless, sports differ significantly from these forms of entertainment. Sporting narratives develop over time in real-world settings, demanding prolonged attention for meaning to emerge.
In sports, the lines between myth and reality are blurred. Athletes become characters, written and rewritten as their careers unfold. On Sunday, Alcaraz drew strength from the crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier, stepping into the role of David, while Sinner was involuntarily cast as the impenetrable Goliath. Through watching sports, life, too, becomes more than the scientific, analytical reality the Western world has chosen to adopt. We can draw solace from the knowledge that there will always be another Roland-Garros, another opportunity to experience history.