In his ascent to becoming a four-time grand slam champion at the age of 22, there was one thing that Carlos Alcaraz had yet to manage: in eight attempts, the Spaniard had never before come from two sets down to win a match. He had certainly never come from three championship points down, in a grand slam final. As Jannik Sinner, the World No 1, stood on the brink of extending his winning streak to a third grand slam title, the odds of Alcaraz beating his young rival looked impossible.

But Alcaraz held a super-power up his sleeve: in an astonishing, five-hour, 29-minute epic, the deeper the trouble Alcaraz faced, the higher the level he produced, and the further he soared. When Sinner stood with three championship points in the fourth set, at 5-3 0-40 on the Alcaraz serve, the Spaniard licked his lips, wiped his brow, and got to work. He saved all three, whipping his arms and roaring around Court Philippe-Chatrier – alive.

And from being that close to defeat against the dominant World No 1, Alcaraz pulled off his most astonishing escape yet, winning 4-6 6-7 6-4 7-6 7-6 (10-2) in a match tiebreak to end one of the greatest tennis matches ever played, as well as the longest French Open final in history.

He defended his Roland Garros crown on the Paris clay, winning his fifth grand slam title while, somehow, remaining undefeated in major finals. He did so after saving those three Championship points, then as Sinner served for his third consecutive grand slam, and then as Alcaraz raced away with a one-sided final tiebreak.

Even on those three championship points, Alcaraz always believed he could join the select group of men to win a grand slam final from match point down. “I think the real champions are made in situations when you deal with that pressure,” Alcaraz said. “That’s why I saw my best tennis in crucial moments, and that’s why I saw my best tennis in those difficult situations.”

Funnily enough, Alcaraz had already told us how this French Open final would unfold. A month ago, just after he had defeated Sinner to win the Italian Open in Rome, Alcaraz told the world where any match against Sinner was going to be won and lost. “If I don’t play at my best, 10 out of 10, it’s going to be impossible to beat him,” Alcaraz said. This was a final that was decided by surges: Sinner hitting the front, Alcaraz roaring back, Sinner raising his level again. When Alcaraz faced the end in the fourth set but stayed alive, that, right there, was when the Spaniard’s dial hit the red and exploded off the charts.

Because when Alcaraz opened his wings and locked in, there was nothing Sinner could do to stop him. He won 15 of the final 19 points in the match against the top seed, going from 15-30 down as Alcaraz served at 5-6 in the final set, to 10-2 in the championship tiebreak, all while hitting an extraordinary series of shots that had Court Philippe-Chatrier losing its mind; leaving reasonable, measured people screaming with their head in their hands.

That is the irresistible, unstoppable power of Alcaraz: from the crunching forehand crosscourt on 15-30 and the dipping backhand winner crosscourt to reach the tiebreak, the plucked volley on the run in the decider, and the backhand down the line that left Sinner standing helplessly with his hands on his hips. Then, on match point, the forehand winner down the line before dropping to the clay.

On the other side of the net, the 23-year-old Sinner suffered what is by far the most painful defeat of his life. “I won’t sleep very well tonight,” he said. “It happens. We saw it in the past with other players, and today it happened to me.”

The sport’s undisputed, unflinching No 1, who had smothered and subdued Alcaraz and his shot-making to take a two-set lead, was instead dragged into the depths of a fight that he was not prepared for. But, to his immense credit, Sinner did not sink. Even when he looked broken, with his legs pulled from underneath him, Sinner levelled the fifth set as Alcaraz served for the title, the astonishing drama continuing.

And yet, Sinner who lost in a grand slam final for the first time, has now lost all seven matches he had played that have gone over the four-hour distance. Alcaraz won the match when he forced him to go there, with Alcaraz now also winning five matches in a row against his young rival, but how he even got to the fifth will defy belief.

Cornered, Alcaraz came out swinging bigger than before. “I had to go for it, and not be afraid of the big moments,” he said. But on the three championship points, Sinner hesitated. On the first, he put a forehand on the run long. On the second, against the Alcaraz second serve, he powered his backhand over the baseline. On third, Sinner then netted into the middle of the net after the baseline exchange. “Wasn’t great points,” Alcaraz admitted, but he had stayed alive.

From 0-40 down, Alcaraz won 12 of the next 13 points, breaking Sinner to love when he served for the title at 5-4. Ruthlessly, when Sinner was at his most vulnerable, Alcaraz crushed his resilience with a series of drop shots that sucked the soul from the Italian.

At the same time, Alcaraz plugged his electric spark into the crowd and conducted them into a frenzy: alternating from either standing like a statue, with his finger to his ear, or dancing around the back of the court like a prize fighter in the ring. When Alcaraz was on a surge, here is nothing else like him. In the third-set tiebreak, he went from 0-2 down to 7-1. For the first time in the match, he hit back-to-back aces, painting the lines on both sides.

And yet, Sinner did not allow Alcaraz to pull away. “I had to delete everything,” Sinner said. He started again, and had two break points as Alcaraz served at 2-1, but the Spaniard held in a 10-minute game. It is highly unusual to see Sinner show signs of frustration on the court, but there was nowhere for the Italian to hide as Alcaraz pulled off another delicate drop shot to force his heavy legs into another sprint from the baseline.

Alcaraz had been a break down in the third, too. Importantly, even though he had lost the second-set tiebreak, Alcaraz had managed to find a groove for the first time in the final and returned there to dig in his claws and pull himself back into the match. With Sinner serving at 4-5, Alcaraz then played his best return game of the match to win four consecutive points against the Sinner serve, sending the Italian left and right and then moving through the court to dispatch the volley.

While he had never come from two sets down in his young career, Alcaraz had battled over the five-set distance numerous times, compiling an outstanding record when matches have gone over the four-hour mark, including to win last year’s French Open final against Alexander Zverev. He has now won his last 10 fifth-set matches in a row, with his last defeat over five sets coming when he was just 18.

In the fifth, Alcaraz jumped into the lead when he broke Sinner in the third game. But the jeopardy of the final set became clear when Sinner broke to level the set as Alcaraz served for the title. Sinner somehow reached an Alcaraz drop shot, flicking the pick-up over the net. As the clock ticked to five hours, Alcaraz netted and Sinner, incredibly, was back within a game of it, then within two points as he got to 15-30 and deuce. “I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how I saved that game,” Alcaraz said.

But Alcaraz had already survived. For one last time in the championship tiebreak, he took off towards the finish line, and did not look back.