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Sinner reckons Alcaraz is the favourite, but notes he’s improving on clay. He’s moving better and more confident and knows that if he serves well he’s very difficult to beat. If he can get his line forehand going too, he’s almost unbeatable.

“Wondering how the doubles have gone in Paris,” begins Andrew Benton. “The dear old doubles always seems to get scant coverage, but games are so nice to watch.” I couldn’t agree more. I had the privilege of interviewing Henry Patten a few weeks ago, and that was one of the things he expounded upon. Henry and Harri went out on the quarters this time – the title went to Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos – while Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani won the women’s with Errani and Andrea Vavassori taking the mixed.

“Alcaraz has won every slam final he has played in,” writes Peter Slessenger. Federer won his first seven slam finals. That is quite some target to aim at. Looking forward to the match and hoping for that smile!” Sinner has too, but both times on hards, whereas Alcaraz’s three have come on the slippier surfaces, clay and grass. He’s the better mover, as we said before, but he doesn’t hit as powerfully or as cleanly, so he’ll need to work angles to prevent the Italian planting his feet and sitting down on his shots.

If we go deep, Alcaraz will be favourite – he’s 12-1 over five-setters, whereas Sinner is 6-9. More than that, though, Sinner is the slight underdog, yet to win this competition so not certain he can. That makes him less likely to come from behind, though of course it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he did because he’s capable of almost anything.

Email from yesterday, via Joel Smith: “I am so disappointed, and frankly angry, at Sabalenka’s extremely ungracious runner up speech at Roland Garros!! So disrespectful to Coco and the occasion. This is on the heels of Sabalenka smashing her racquets at the Aussie Open after losing to Madison Keys, which was totally unacceptable. Imagine if Serena or Coco behaved this poorly, they’d be castigated as a sore loser so, I hope the press and tennis community doesn’t give Sabalenka a free pass! Sabalenka acting like she was entitled to this title is so unbecoming and although I like her personality, she about to lose me as a supporter. How dare she ran on this classy young lady’s win.” I dunno. I know what you mean but I appreciated her honesty – when I watch sport, I want a window into people’s souls a lot more than I want anodyne platitudes. Sabalenka was hurting bad and she told us why and how she planned to handle it; I must prefer that to a taking the positives glib-fest, much as I love and respect Gauff.

TNT have Mac and Chrissy in the studio. You know what? Loz the match, let’s just listen to those two talk tennis for the rest of the afternoon. I’m the right age for this, but imagine being that gifted with a racket in hand, and also this funny, kind, insightful and charismatic.

It’s hard to argue with that isn’t it? And yet I’d still like to have seen better performances from Alcaraz over the fortnight, who was in trouble against Musetti for the best part of two sets. He plays like that today, it’s not close … and yet he’s so good at hitting whatever level he requires to win. Moreover, his win in Rome came in Sinner’s first match tournament back after his drug ban; he’s fitter, sharper and more confident now. Oh man, what a contest we’re in for.

I know we don’t know who’s going to win but … who’s going to win? I’ve been leaning Sinner because his game has the fewer moving parts and he’s in the better form. But Coach Calv, our resident expert, knows plenty more than me ands is backing Alcaraz: “He’s won their last four meetings, won on this court last year, and has a bit more to his game: he moves better, volleys better, and has more change-up – drops, slices, angles. The game could do with Sinner winning probably, can’t have a rivalry if it’s totally one-sided, though I guess people still talk about Keane-Vieira as a rivalry, even though it wasn’t.”

Updated at 13.17 BST

Source: The Guardian.