Reigning champion Alcaraz rallied from the brink of defeat to overcome world number one Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (10/2) after five hours and 29 minutes to clinch his fifth Grand Slam title.
The 22-year-old Spaniard is now unbeaten in five Grand Slam finals after snapping Sinner’s 20-match winning run at the majors.
“This was the most exciting match that I’ve played so far without a doubt,” said Alcaraz. “I think the match had everything.”
Alcaraz pulled off his first ever comeback from two sets down in the longest Roland Garros final in history, recovering from 5-3 down in the fourth set when Sinner had three match points.
“Today was all about believing in myself. Never doubted myself today and I tried to go for it,” he said.
“Real champions are made in those situations.”
Alcaraz is the first man to win a Grand Slam title after saving match point since Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final. The only other man to do it in the Open era was Gaston Gaudio at Roland Garros in 2004.
Sinner fell agonisingly short of a third successive Grand Slam crown after last year’s US Open title and back-to-back Australian Open triumphs.
“It’s easier to play than talking now,” said a devastated Sinner. “I won’t sleep very well tonight but it’s OK.
“We try to delete it somehow and take the positive and keep going. There are no other ways,” he added.
“It hurts, but you cannot keep crying.”
Sinner suffered his fifth straight loss to Alcaraz in what was their first meeting in a Grand Slam final - and the first championship match at a major between two men born in the 2000s.
Alcaraz leads 8-4 overall having also beaten Sinner in the final in Rome, where the Italian returned to competition in May after a three-month doping ban.
Sinner floored by Alcaraz comeback
Alcaraz put the pressure on Sinner by carving out three break points to start Saturday’s final, but the Italian resisted and soon had a chance of his own.
He couldn’t take advantage and found himself having to fend off two more break points at 1-1, producing clutch serves to grind out another tough hold.
Alcaraz’s persistence paid off in the fifth game when he broke to nudge 3-2 ahead, only for the Spaniard to immediately hand the lead back.
The unshakeable Sinner threatened to break again at 4-3, with a brief lapse from Alcaraz eventually enabling Sinner to snatch the first set.
Sinner hit the accelerator to start the second set, surging 3-0 in front. After facing seven break points in the opener, he tightened up considerably on serve.
But Alcaraz brought up his first break point of the second set with Sinner serving for a two-set lead, duly pouncing on the opportunity.
With the swagger back in his step at a crucial juncture, Alcaraz sought to bring the crowd into the contest but Sinner remained unflustered in the tie-break.
The first five points went with serve before Sinner whipped a forehand down the line and Alcaraz then steered a drop-shot wide.
A tame return into the net gave Sinner four set points. Alcaraz saved two before Sinner unleashed a blistering cross-court forehand to move to within a set of the trophy.
It all looked to be going his way when he broke Alcaraz to begin the third set, but the Spaniard refused to surrender his title quietly and rattled off four games on the bounce to lead 4-1.
Alcaraz lost serve at 5-3 but promptly broke to love to force a fourth set, lapping up the roars of the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.
That ended Sinner’s run of 31 consecutive sets won at Grand Slams.
Alcaraz saved a break point in the third game amid a series of holds as Sinner doubled down. The Italian appeared to be closing in on victory when he broke at 3-3 to approach the finish line.
But Alcaraz had other ideas as he staved off three championship points at 3-5 and then broke Sinner when he tried to seal the title on his serve.
Successive aces spurred a reinvigorated Alcaraz on in the tie-break and into a decisive fifth set.
A despairing Sinner lost his serve right away and his gloom deepened as Alcaraz saved two break points to pull 3-1 ahead, but incredibly there was another twist.
Alcaraz this time faltered with the title within his grasp as Sinner broke while trailing 5-3 to spark a three-game burst that left the Spaniard needing to hold serve to prolong the final.
He kept his nerve to set up a 10-point tie-break, which Alcaraz ran away with as the outrageous shotmaking continued until the very end when he took his first championship point with a sizzling forehand.
Gutsy Gauff beats Sabalenka
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles final on Saturday, Coco Gauff battled back from a set down to beat world number one Aryna Sabalenka in a Grand Slam final for the second time with a dramatic victory.
The second-ranked American dug deep to claim a 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4 victory and her second major title after also defeating Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open.
The 21-year-old more than made amends for her emotional 2022 final loss to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros, outlasting Sabalenka over two hours and 38 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.
“I was going through a lot of things when I lost in this final three years ago. I’m just happy to be here,” said Gauff.
“I didn’t think honestly that I could do it... I think I was lying to myself that I definitely could do it.”
It was a second straight Grand Slam final loss for Sabalenka after her defeat by Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January.
Gauff was rock solid after falling a set down, while Sabalenka made 70 unforced errors in windy conditions in a match which followed a very similar pattern to Gauff’s victory at Flushing Meadows two years ago.
“Obviously it hurts so much, especially after such a tough two weeks when I played such great tennis in these terrible conditions,” said Sabalenka, whose unforced error tally in the final was the highest by any player in a women’s match this tournament.
“To show such terrible tennis in the final, it does really hurt.”
Belarusian Sabalenka was aiming to become the only current women’s player to win three of the four Grand Slam events after her US Open triumph last year and back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2023 and 2024.
But Gauff instead moved 6-5 ahead in their head-to-head record, proving the more consistent player in the first women’s Slam final between the world’s top two since Caroline Wozniacki beat Simona Halep in Melbourne in 2018.
Only Gauff, Swiatek, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sharapova have won multiple Slam titles before turning 22 in the last 20 years.
Marathon first set
The 27-year-old Sabalenka quickly asserted herself, racing ahead by taking four of the first five games.
The top seed led 4-1 with a double-break in her semi-final win over Swiatek before being forced into a tie-break.
She gifted Gauff a glimmer of hope too, throwing away the sixth game from 40-0 up with two double-faults and a tame backhand into the bottom of the net.
Gauff made it 12 points in a row and levelled the set on her fifth break point of the eighth game when Sabalenka fired another groundstroke long.
She could not build on that momentum and immediately gave the break straight back.
But Sabalenka failed to serve out the set in a tense game, missing two set points - the first with another double-fault - as Gauff eventually extended the opener by taking her fifth break point.
Both players continued to struggle on serve in the breeze, Sabalenka breaking for fourth time in the set but again unable to close it out.
The first tie-break in the opening set of a women’s French Open final since 1998 saw Sabalenka finally clinch the set after 77 minutes with a run of four straight points.
It was the longest set in a women’s Grand Slam final since the Williams sisters faced off at Wimbledon in 2002 and longer than last year’s final between Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini.
Gauff started the second set on the front foot, though, moving into a 4-1 lead with a double-break.
Unlike Sabalenka in the first set, Gauff saw it out with few problems, sending the match into a decider on her first set point with a confident smash at the net.
The US star also struck first blood in the third, breaking in game three as Sabalenka sent down her fifth double-fault.
Sabalenka managed to drag it back to 3-3, but immediately was broken to love as Gauff edged towards the title.
Gauff was denied on her first match point by a booming Sabalenka return onto the baseline and then had to save a break point.
But she got over the line at the second time of asking, falling to the clay in celebration.