Jannik Sinner became the first Italian to win three Grand Slams as he beat Alexander Zverev in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to win the Australian Open for the second time.
It was the first time since 2019 that the showdown featured the top two seeds – where Zverev was attempting to win his first Slam in his third final – while Sinner has now equalled the record for most wins by a men’s player as World Number one (47) in their first 50 matches.
Sinner held serve more comfortably throughout the contest and was able to make in-roads regularly against his 27-year-old opponent who was faced with a barrage of baseline winners from both wings. He offered no breakpoints and was simply relentless off the ground.
It was another match which showcased the Italian’s great movement from side to side – including sliding into backhand winners with an open stance – as well as powerful serving along with flashy forehand winners above the 150km/h mark.
The Italian brought up match point by bringing Zverev into the net and passed him with yet another crosscourt backhand winner before raising his arms aloft in joy, relief, and delight at becoming the youngest man to successfully defending his title since Jim Courier in 1992/93.
“First of all, I would like to start with Sascha,” said Sinner during the trophy presentation. “Again, a tough day for you, your whole team, your family. You are an amazing player. Keep believing in yourself. We all know how strong you are as a player and person. Keep it up and keep working hard because we all believe you can win one of these soon. I wish you all the best.”
Sinner won the title here last year after a dramatic five set win over Daniil Medvedev fighting back from two sets down. But there was no such drama tonight under the lights as he took his record to a perfect 21 Grand Slam hard court wins since last year’s event.
Sinner credited his team as they shared in his success, but in particular Darren Cahill who is stepping down at the end of this year:
“To my team, what can I say. We worked a lot to be again in this position. It is an amazing feeling to share this moment with all of you. It is amazing to achieve these things and to share this with you guys. Darren, it is probably, maybe your last Australian Open as a coach – I will try to convince you [to carry on] – and it is an honour to share this trophy with you. And Simone [Vagnozzi], you are an amazing combination of coaches. Thank you so much.”
Coming in to the match Zverev held a 4-2 record over the World Number one but had lost their previous encounter in Cincinnati in a final set tie-break. He was appearing in his 36th Grand Slam, and has made changes to his serve hitting it earlier. It paid dividends in the opening stages of the first set and presented problems to Sinner, but he grew more comfortable as the match progressed and by the produced returns landing on the baseline.
When serving at 1-2 in the first set, two unforced errors took Zverev to 0-30. A poor dropshot brought up the first breakpoints of the match at 15-40 but he saved both using his big first serve.
Games went with serve until Zverev served at 3-4 down and was under severe pressure with multiple deuces, but Sinner finally broke through on his fourth breakpoint before serving out the set the same way as he started: an ace over 200km/h.
The German, who was into his first Australian Open final, was under immediate pressure at the start of the second set and offered two more breakpoints in the third game when he double faulted at 1-2, 15-40 but saved both with winning smashes and sneaked through the game to hold serve.
Sinner threw in two drop shots in the next game pulling Zverev forward from ten feet behind the baseline and began to move his opponent around even more. He got his teeth into the German’s next service game and reached 30-30 with excellent depth on his backhands but lost the next point on a casual drop shot and Zverev held for 4-3.
Sinner’s first serve percentage dropped to 52% during the second set and was in trouble at 0-30 when serving to stay in the set with a couple of unforced errors to start the game but pulled through to draw level at 5-5.
When 6-5 ahead and 30-30, both players produced the rally of the match stretching each other to all corners of the court before Sinner chased down an angles volley and hit a winning backhand up the line.
Both players entered the tie-break with perfect 3-0 records from this tournament and after four mini-breaks in a row they swapped ends level at three points all, before Sinner struck a dead net cord with the scores locked at 4-4. Sinner served out and won the second set after 72 minutes and was in total control of proceedings on Centre Court.
Sinner continued his dominance throughout the third set, breaking to go 4-2 ahead when another Zverev forehand went long. At that point, the Italian had made just one unforced error in the set compared to 11 by Zverev.
Zverev paid tribute to his team for all their hard work since his serious ankle injury sustained in the semi-final against Rafeal Nadal at the French Open in 2022, after which he climbed slowly but surely up the rankings to World number two – but on Sinner’s flawless performance today he is far from challenging for the top spot.
“First of all, I mean it sucks standing here next to this trophy and not being able to touch it,” said Zverev on court. “Congratulations to Jannik, you more than deserve it. You are the best player in the world by far. I was hoping that I could be more of a competitor today but you are just too good, it’s as simple as that. Congratulations to your team as well, you have done all the right things so there is nobody that deserves the trophy more.
“I want to thank my team. We are trying to do all of the right work, I’m just not good enough – it is as simple as that! I really appreciate what everybody has done for me over the last few years, from coming back from my ankle injury to playing in Grand Slam finals. I really appreciate everything they have done. I wouldn’t be here without them. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to lift the trophy but I will keep coming back and trying. I will see you guys’ next year.”
Sinner became just the fourth player in the last 35 years not to face a single break point in a Grand Slam final. As he finished his speech, he thanked the crowd for their support: “It is an incredible tournament, for me it is the most special Grand Slam and I am so happy to be here. To the crowd, I felt all your love and see you again next year. Thank you.”
