It all comes down to this: What were our Top 5 all-around best matches of the 2024 ATP season?
The 2024 tennis season was filled with noteworthy stories, breakthrough moments, and countless trophy lifts. But what were the best matches of the year that was?
We rolled the tape, and this week, TENNIS.com counted down some of the best WTA matches of the past year (after counting down our WTA picks last week). Our countdown concludes with our overall Top 5 matches of the year. These matches, each for their own reasons, thrilled and entertained, and played an integral part in the year’s overall narrative.
5. Taylor Fritz def. Alexander Zverev, ATP Finals SF
The rivalry between Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev transcended surface, tournament and round in 2024, but one thing was consistent: The American winning the majority of the time. But despite a five-setter at Wimbledon, that was dramatic on and off the court, and another four-setter at the US Open, the best match of the bunch came at the year’s final tournament.
The 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) win for Fritz helped him become the first American since 2006 to reach the singles final at the ATP’s year-end championships.
The pair’s battle in Turin was a serving display, with only two breaks in the entire match—one in the first set for Fritz, and likewise one in the second set for Zverev.
Both players faced break points in the third set, Fritz saving three at 2-all, then Zverev three at 3-4, then Fritz another two at 5-all. But in the end it all came down to one tiebreak, and it was the American who struck first, grabbing a mini-break for a 2-0 lead and never letting go of that lead, eventually unleashing one last inside-out forehand winner on his first match point to seal the victory after two hours and 21 minutes on court.
How the win was sealed—a forehand winner, one of 30 finishers for Fritz in three sets—and the willingness to go for it, was an example of the confidence Fritz built on big stages in 2024. It something that, although he finished as runner-up to Jannik Sinner, helped him finish at a career-high world No. 4 in the ATP rankings.
“I trust my game and I trust my level,” Fritz said post-match. “I don’t feel anywhere near as uncomfortable in these situations anymore because I’ve been putting myself in these situations against the top guys at big events a lot lately… I’m really confident in my game.”
4. Carlos Alcaraz def. Alexander Zverev, Roland Garros F
Winning Roland Garros, and following in the footsteps of all the Spanish greats that came before him was a “dream … since I was five, six years old,” Carlos Alcaraz said this spring.
But to achieve it, and lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires over his head for the first time, he forced Alexander Zverev into a living nightmare.
For the second time in his career, after losing a two-set lead to Dominic Thiem in the final of the 2020 US Open, Zverev couldn’t hold onto a lead in a Grand Slam final. This time, from two-sets-to-one ahead (after stealing the third from 5-3 down), Zverev watched as Alcaraz captured 12 of the final 15 games to win 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, and take home his third career Grand Slam singles title.
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Alcaraz overcame not just Zverev, who came into the fortnight having won Rome while Alcaraz was sidelined for three weeks with an arm injury, but also his own jitters. When Zverev was in the midst of his third-set comeback, Alcaraz ranted to chair umpire Renaud Lichtenstein that the terre battue was playing more like a hard court. Later, with Alcaraz serving at 2-1, 15-40 in the fifth set, his second serve was called out, seemingly double-faulting to give Zverev the break back. But Lichtenstein overturned the call on a mark inspection.
This time, Alcaraz steadied his fraying nerves. Given the second chance, he went on to hold serve and stayed in front to the end.
“I know that when I’m playing a fifth set you have to give everything and you have to give your heart,” he said afterwards. “In those moments, it’s where the top players give their best tennis.”
3. Jannik Sinner def. Daniil Medvedev, Australian Open F
Jannik Sinner’s coronation in Melbourne Park featured a different sort of comeback, against a different opponent, but gave similar heartbreak to the beaten finalist. This time, the victim was Daniil Medvedev, who dropped to 0-3 in his career in Australian Open finals, and let a two-set lead slip in the showpiece match for the second time in three years.
Sinner became the first Italian to capture an Australian Open title thanks to a 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 comeback that lasted three hours and 44 minutes. The first man from his nation to win a major since Adriano Panatta at 1976 Roland Garros and the youngest man to triumph in Melbourne since a 20-year-old Novak Djokovic lifted his first Grand Slam crown in 2008, Sinner’s Australian Open victory was, now with the benefit of hinsight, a sign of greater heights to come.
But it was a microcosm of the marked improvements the Italian has made in the last year-plus to his game, which he showed throughout the year. To complete his comeback, Sinner turned defense into attack facing a more-aggressive than usual Medvedev, who was already running on fumes after three previous five-setters in six rounds. It was an unsustainable level, ultimately, for the Russian, and the Italian hung around, weathered the storm, cut down on his errors, and took his chances when they (finally) presented themselves.
“I had this feeling that he might come out a little bit more aggressive,” Sinner said. “Not this aggressive. He played really, really well for the first two or two and a half sets.”
“I tried just to play even level, trying to take a couple of chances in the third set. When you win one very important game, the match can change … and that was the case today.”
Medvedev approached the net twice as many times as Sinner (45 to 21) and hit nearly as many winners (50 to 44), but ultimately could not hold off what was Sinner’s second career comeback from two sets down.
“I like to dance in the pressure storm,” Sinner now-famously said of his outwardly calm approach to the most tense moments. “I like it, because that’s where most of the time I bring out my best tennis.”
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