Ali Thameem
Jannik Sinner has won a fifth Grand Slam title at this year’s Wimbledon, defeating Alexander Zverev in four sets.
The 24-year-old Italian was the top seed in the competition. Going into the final, the odds were in Sinner’s favor: he had won his previous nine matches (14 consecutive sets) against Zverev.
After nearly four hours (3hr 46min) of action, it was Sinner who came through with 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 against the German. Zverev, who had won the Roland Garros (French Open) just a month ago, upset Sinner by winning the first set, having taken it to a tie-break.
Sinner then rose to the occasion, making the comeback with just as tight a margin. “Jannik, I don’t really like you anymore,” Zverev joked afterwards. “But he (Sinner) has shown why he is the best player in the world.”
“Despite how well he struck it for most of the match, Zverev’s forehand still broke down too often in key moments”, writes Tumaini Carayol for The Guardian. Sinner, on the other hand, “paired his excellent serving with incredible scrambling defence, intelligent drop shots and lobs, and excellent returning in the final two sets.”
With this victory Sinner becomes just the 10th man to have retained the Wimbledon title in the open era.
The 24-year-old continues to prove to the world why he has the potential to be one of the greats of the game. His incredible resilience just past year was evidence for that; having suffered heartbreak in a blockbuster final against Carlos Alcarez at the Roland Garros, Sinner went on to take vengeance on the Spaniard, winning his first Wimbledon title.
“The thing I’m very happy about is that I’m trying to do my best every day,” Sinner said after the final. “There is no failure if you don’t win a grand slam. It’s very, very rare. Now I have five in my whole life.
“We talk about five grand slams. But at the end of the day, it’s five days of so many other days. You just want to enjoy it”.
