It took 5 1/2 hours, but on Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open for the second straight year. Alcaraz bested Jannik Sinner in a grueling, thrilling match after a stunning comeback, 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2).

The takeaways from Carlos Alcaraz’s fifth-set tiebreaker victory over Jannik Sinner in the French Open men’s final are multiple and significant.

A transcendent match could not have been so in a shorter format — but Sinner and Alcaraz's exploits are the exception, not the rule.