4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 13, 2026 01:20 AM IST
Novak Djokovic put it pithily after suffering “a good old blowout”. “You cannot attack Jannik Sinner’s first serve,” he said following his semi-final submission to the Italian virtuoso. And so Alexander Zverev went after everything else. With a known deficiency on grass and a nine-match losing streak against Sinner, he had no choice but to.
Zverev fought fire with fire. He strode out with a strategy to pack greater punch in his groundstrokes, and served with a vengeance. But just as Djokovic found out two nights back, none of it was ammunition enough versus a top-gear Sinner. The 24-year-old supremely returned, counter-slugged and drop-shotted his way to a second straight Wimbledon title. Zverev’s record against Sinner in the last two years slumped to 0-10, but he covered himself in glory nevertheless with his best grass-court performance yet.
It was a pulsating encounter with wafer-thin margins. There were all of six break points in its three hour, 46-minute duration, and the first break of serve arrived after 34 whole games.
The blockbuster opened with a corker of a 22-shot rally in the second point. At the outset, the importance of service-return patterns became apparent with both players known for their clinical serving.
Initially, it was the German who was finishing off his service games in a jiffy and was far more competitive in Sinner’s service games, in comparison. But the top-ranked player held firm, each time he needed to and edged out possible threats.
The first double fault of the match gave Sinner his first break point in the eighth game of the first set, but the Italian uncharacteristically made a mess of a forehand to squander it. With neither player ceding an inch on serve, the set fittingly moved to a tiebreak. The serve-athon continued there as well.
Zverev painstakingly eked out a set point, and that is when Sinner unfurled a majestic drop shot, followed by a breathtaking forehand pass to save it. The world’s best current player then blasted an ace down the line, and Zverev returned the favour immediately. A powerful forehand set up Zverev’s second set point, and another one down the line converted it. ‘Sascha’ bent his knees and let out a roar, for he had taken a set off Sinner for the first time in seven face-offs.
Story continues below this ad
The second seed, who rose to world no. 2 ahead of the missing Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday, took an insulin injection — he has Type 1 diabetes — after Game 5 of the second set. It had no bearing on his gameplay. At 4-5 and 5-6, Sinner was serving to stay in the second set and had to find the baseline corners repeatedly to stay alive.
Late in the set, the 29-year-old finally began to falter with his ball-striking. Sinner needed no second invitation. He swiftly turned defence into attack, revving it up with his returns and succeeding strokes. Despite landing 85 per cent serves as against Sinner’s 55 per cent in the second set, Zverev lost it in tiebreak.
It took 2 hours and 40-odd minutes for the French Open champion to generate his first break point. Sinner stayed unruffled, wrongfooting his opponent with his umpteenth masterful drop shot. Zverev’s rear foot slipped, and he fell scarily. Sinner crossed over to the other side, helped him get back on his feet. But the opportunity, which had arrived in the seventh game of the third set, slipped away.
Zverev recovered from the fall, yet could not prevent his descent in the set. A double fault led to Sinner completing the match’s first break of serve, and wrapping the set up soon after. That was the beginning of the end of the German’s challenge. He remained competitive in the fourth set, but Sinner had tasted blood and was not going to back down. The Italian conjured his 58th winner and sank to the floor. He had emerged triumphant with a 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-4 scoreline, marking his 100th Grand Slam match win.
Story continues below this ad
Will Alcaraz challenge Sinner’s reign once he is back? Probably. But for now, the best first server-returner on the planet has shown enough promise to end up as one of the sport’s greatest.
