Jannik Sinner added to his Grand Slam haul and left Alexander Zverev still searching for answers on the sport’s biggest stage.
Sinner defended his Australian Open title by beating Zverev 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 at Melbourne Park on Sunday night. The world No. 1 struck seven more winners and 18 fewer unforced errors than Zverev, won 84 percent of his first-serve points, and did not face a single break point. He triumphed after two hours and 42 minutes.
The undisputed current hard-court king has won his three major titles at the last three hard-court Grand Slams. In addition to his 2024 success Down Under he rolled to victory at this past summer’s U.S. Open.
In Sunday’s final, Sinner dominated the opening set even though Zverev served at 81 percent. The top seed earned two break points in the fourth game and four more in the eighth game before he finally converted. Sinner then closed it out just as he began the match–with a love hold.
Constantly under pressure on his own serve, Zverev saved two more break points to hold for 2-1 in the second set. The German’s first real opportunity came at 0-30 in the 10th game, but he was not two points away from the set for long–Sinner snuffed out the chance by winning four points in a row to hold. There were two more decisive moments in the second, both won by Sinner. The Italian got the best of an incredible 21-ball rally at 5-6, 30-30 and benefited from an extremely fortuitous net-cord winner to seize a mini-break at 4-4 in the ensuing tiebreaker.
It was all but over when Sinner broke a weary-looking Zverev at 3-2 in the third. The 23-year-old served out the match from there without any trouble.
Zverev is now 0-3 lifetime in slam finals. The 27-year-old came much closer in his previous two appearances, as he led Dominic Thiem two sets to love at the 2020 U.S. Open and led Carlos Alcaraz two sets to one at the 2024 French Open.
“I’m doing everything I can,” the world No. 2 assured. “I’m working as hard as I ever did. I think I’m doing all the right things off court. I think I’m doing the right things, but I lost in straight sets today. I mean, those are facts. That is a fact. I lost to Jannik in straight sets today.
“I don’t want to end my career as the best player of all time to never win a Grand Slam, that’s for sure. I’ll keep doing everything I can to lift one of those trophies.”
For the most part, this particular loss wasn’t his fault. Zverev simply ran into a buzzsaw–one that leads in the rankings by almost 3,700 points and has won three of the last five majors.
“It was an amazing performance from my side,” Sinner assessedd. “I felt like I was in the beginning of the match serving really well and trying to get into the zone very fast. It was very high-quality from my side. In the second set, I got a bit lucky in the tiebreak, as we saw…. All things considered, [it was an] amazing run again here in Australia. I’m extremely happy.”
too good
Yep. Great calls on both finals, Ricky!
thanks!
I picked Zv in 4…..but I guess I was wrong!!…Bravo Sinner!
It could’ve been if he took his chances. It goes a lot deeper than that but we can leave that for another time.
Congrats Ricky for calling it!! I realize u get a lot of flack for your calls but u did good this time, keep
It up!! Don’t worry, just keep Keeping on!!