Italian champion Jannik Sinner has successfully defended his Wimbledon title after a freak slip midway through a riveting final unnerved Alexander Zverev, who unravelled after a scare that evoked memories of a horror fall in Paris four years ago.
The German held the rarest of opportunities – a break point at 3-all in the third set of a serve dominated decider – when brought undone by the deftest of touch, with Zverev losing his balance as he set off in pursuit of a Sinner drop shot.
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The world’s most famous court was engulfed in shadows as Sinner closed out a 6-7 (7) 7-6 (2) 6-3 6-4 victory in 3hr 46min just before 8pm to end a gripping affair. For Sinner, it was an important victory after the difficulties he experienced in Paris.
“I think every grand Slam is different, you know. A different story, different environment, different feelings before the tournament,” he said.
“For me this one means a lot because was a tough one after Paris again. Last year was also tough. But coming here, I tried to put myself in the best possible position to be as competitive as possible. Having this achievement, it means a lot to me.”
The pivotal moment in the final came about an hour earlier.
A capacity crowd enraptured by a contest in which the world’s two top-ranked men split the first two sets in tiebreakers gasped in shock when the 29-year-old rolled on to his back and immediately reached for his right knee.
Sinner, who furthered his dominance as the world’s No.1 man with his successful defence of the Wimbledon crown, immediately raced to the other end of Centre Court to check on Zverev and helped him up off the court.
Zverev, who suffered serious ankle injuries when falling against Rafael Nadal in a Roland Garros semi-final in 2022 after also splitting the first two sets in tiebreakers, flexed his knee and did not immediately seek treatment, but it rattled him.
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In the following service game the No.2 seed struggled to bend low to a backhand when moving forward and lost the superb rhythm from the baseline which had enabled him to go head-to-head with Sinner in several pulsating, powerful rallies.
After dropping serve for the first time in the match, he tossed his racquet angrily towards the back of the court, fortunate it did not quite have enough velocity to reach a ball boy standing behind the opposing singles line. By that stage it was too late.
Zverev later said he had “overextended” the knee and that it had an impact on his serve.
While the recent Roland Garros champion carried on, his goose was cooked, gone with the slip for against a player as remarkable as Sinner, it is even rarer to get a second chance than a break point and the Italian was now in the ascendancy.
“I was struggling to push off on the serve a little bit, so my serve speed went down,” he said.
“But everything else went fine. I was moving fine from the baseline and playing from the baseline fine. But on the serve, I was struggling a little bit more.
“I think the fall didn’t help me in the third set. In the third set, my level dropped a little bit. But then I picked it up in the fourth again. I just got broken, yeah, in a little bit unlucky way, so … that was the match. But overall I thought it was quite high level throughout the match from both of us.”
After clinching what he described as an “amazing” victory in a “special place”, Sinner praised the level with which Zverev played and said he had no doubt the German was capable of fulfilling a dream of becoming world No.1 one day.
“It has been an amazing final once again and … it always takes two players and, you know, me and Sasha (Zverev) tried to give everything we had,” he said.
“I’m very happy, of course, about the win, but I’m mostly very happy about the level we both played. You know when you are the winner, there is no better place, honestly, to play tennis.
“You can feel the nerves on the Sunday morning when you wake up. You know that this is, you know, a very, very special day, and you never know how many times you can come back on Sunday, so I never take things for granted.”
In clinching his fifth major title to go with a double in Australia in 2024 and 2025, his success a year ago over Carlos Alcaraz on this court and his US Open triumph in 2024, the 24-year-old extended his winning streak against Zverev to ten.
It is a one-sided streak that dates back to the start of 2024 after Zvevev had won four of their first five matches, but this match was far closer with good reason, and that relates to the finalists remarkable serving and an improvement from the German.
The two men have been nigh-on-impregnable on serve throughout the fortnight, the caveat being Sinner’s opening round match when stretched to five sets by Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic. And so it panned out until Zverev’s nasty slip.
Some serve-dominated matches are snore fests, but the sheer quality of the ball-striking from both men elevated this final well beyond that, with both Sinner and Zverev conjuring some remarkable winners from all corners of the court.
The No.2 seed fell short of becoming the first German to win Wimbledon since Michael Stich in 1991 but he attacked the decider in a manner that should give him confidence he can press Sinner and Alcaraz, should the sidelined Spaniard be able to recapture his sizzling best form whenever he returns to the tour after a serious wrist injury.
Most notable was his willingness to unleash on his forehand, which has often been the wing that breaks down under pressure, with the angular right-hander unleashing several thunderous winners including the one which clinched the first set.
“We had a pretty good two months, I would say, even though we lost this final, an amazing two months,” he said.
“We came to Wimbledon (having) never reached the quarterfinals and we (have now) played our first Wimbledon final. And at 29-years-old, this is the first time I actually believe I can win this trophy.”
The second set was another extremely tight affair but unlike late in the opening set, Zverev frayed in the infancy of the second set tiebreaker, with a couple of errors combined with some excellence from the eventual champion proving the difference.
Then came the slip. At that stage, it was impossible to pick a winner, so well was the German playing against a man who has been the dominant player since March, the stunning meltdown at Roland Garros in the second round aside.
While Zverev, who took a brief break from the court after dropping the third set, continued the thump his groundstrokes, there was now an air of vulnerability and at 3-all he was broken again after the irrepressible Sinner ripped a forehand winner.
The Italian still had to complete the job, one that would ensure he retained his crown and also add legitimacy to his No.1 ranking at a time where Alcaraz holds the US and Australian titles and Zverev is the Roland Garros winner.
It was not easy and the vanquished Zverev continued to fight, as evidenced by a simply remarkable point at 30-all in the final game. It is worth checking out, for the defence and court coverage of Sinner in particular was otherworldly.
After winning that remarkable point, he closed out the championship with a forehand winner, a fitting end to a high-standard final.
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