Asin Battle Season 14: The Chosen Ones Show Their Talents!

At 3 a.m. tomorrow, the Cincinnati Masters final brings together world No. 1, Italy’s Sinner, and world No. 2, Spain’s Alcaraz. Both have lived up to expectations by reaching the final, where they’ll battle for the championship.

This is the 14th edition of the Asin Battle, and it’s the fourth straight time in 2025 that these two prodigies have met in a major final. In the previous three finals, Alcaraz took home the Rome Masters and French Open titles but surprisingly lost the Wimbledon final, allowing Sinner to win the championship in his first Wimbledon final appearance.

Therefore, both players are putting extra emphasis on the Cincinnati Masters final, and fans are paying close attention. Will defending champion Sinner, riding high after his Wimbledon victory, unleash his machine-like whip shots to once again defeat his lifelong rival Alcaraz and clinch back-to-back Cincinnati Masters titles?

Or will Alcaraz, after his crushing defeat at Wimbledon, improve his weaknesses or play to his strengths, determined to topple Sinner—just as he shattered his own dream of a Wimbledon three-peat—and prevent Sinner from winning two consecutive Cincinnati Masters titles? If he succeeds, he’ll claim his eighth Masters championship and surpass Germany’s Zverev, becoming the top Masters winner among all players born in the 90s, 95s, and 00s.

For Alcaraz, beating Sinner is no easy feat! Since last year’s Shanghai Masters, through the year-end finals, Davis Cup, this year’s Australian Open, and now the Cincinnati Masters, Sinner has racked up an incredible 26-match hard court winning streak across seasons, making him the new “King of Hard Courts.”

But the challenge is just as great for Sinner. Since Monte Carlo Masters this year, Alcaraz has reached seven straight finals and leads the ATP Tour with 53 wins this season. Especially, just as Sinner bounced back fiercely in the Wimbledon final after a painful French Open loss, Alcaraz—having suffered a setback at Wimbledon—will surely launch a fierce counterattack in the Cincinnati Masters final, aiming to dethrone Sinner.

Since the start of the 2024 season, Italy’s Sinner has been unstoppable on hard courts. He won the Australian Open, the ATP500 Rotterdam title, and after reaching the semifinals in Indian Wells, went on a 16-match hard court winning streak. However, in the Indian Wells Masters semifinals, it was Spain’s Alcaraz who made a dramatic comeback to defeat Sinner and successfully defend his title.

A similar scenario unfolded last year. Sinner won back-to-back titles at Cincinnati and the US Open, then reached the final again at the ATP500 China Open in Beijing. But once more, Alcaraz fought back, overturning Sinner in the China Open final and ending his dream of consecutive championships, claiming his first China Open title.

It was after failing to defend his title in last year’s China Open final that Sinner began another impressive run, winning 26 consecutive hard court matches across seasons. The task of halting Sinner’s streak now falls to Alcaraz for the third time—a daunting but honorable mission. Can Alcaraz rise to the challenge and accomplish this feat yet again?

As rivals and chosen ones, every high-stakes clash between Alcaraz and Sinner is a battle of skill, tactics, fitness, mentality, experience, and willpower—victory often comes down to the smallest margin, depending on who performs better on the day.

From last year’s Indian Wells Masters semifinals to this year’s French Open final, Alcaraz has defeated the formidable Sinner five times in a row. While this may seem extraordinary, a closer look at the matches and scores reveals just how close each contest was—sometimes decided by only a point or two.

Of those five matches, only the Rome Masters final saw Alcaraz win in straight sets. In the other four, Alcaraz lost the opening set but came back to win in dramatic fashion. In the 2025 French Open final, defending champion Alcaraz saved three championship points against Sinner, battled for 5 hours and 29 minutes, and pulled off a stunning comeback to clinch his second straight French Open title—a testament to his resilience.

Wasn’t Sinner’s victory over Alcaraz in the 2025 Wimbledon final equally remarkable? After Alcaraz took the first set, Sinner—motivated by his French Open defeat—fought back with everything he had, winning the next three sets and shattering Alcaraz’s dream of a Wimbledon three-peat.

At 3 a.m. tomorrow, the Cincinnati Masters final marks the 14th season of the Asin Battle. Let’s witness how these two chosen ones, the most dominant forces in men’s tennis today, showcase their abilities and deliver a spectacular, earth-shaking showdown!

(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Qicai Doufen)