The men’s singles final will be staged on Sunday night in Melbourne.
It will be World No.1 Jannik Sinner against World No.1 Alexander Zverev playing for the Australian Open title. Sinner is vying for his third Major out of the last five, while Zverev is looking to win his first, after losing both of his first two Major finals in devastating fashion.
Also on Day 15, it will be Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend (1) vs. Su-Wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko (3) in what should be a captivating women’s doubles championship match, featuring the two best women’s doubles players of the past decade on opposite sides of the net. Siniakova is playing for her 10th Major title in women’s doubles, and her second with Townsend, after they won Wimbledon last summer. Su-Wei is also playing for her 10th Major in doubles, though two of her titles have come in mixed. Ostapenko is going for her second straight Major, after winning the US Open alongside Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Alexander Zverev (2) – 7:30pm on Rod Laver Arena
Sinner has become an utterly dominant World No.1, especially on this surface. He is on a 20-match winning streak, dating back to the beginning of the Shanghai Masters in October. He’s also on a 20-match winning streak at hard court Majors. Jannik has dropped only two sets during this fortnight, and easily claimed both his quarterfinal and semifinal in straights.
Zverev is off to an 8-0 start to his season, despite pulling out of the United Cup due to a biceps injury. He’s also only lost two sets through six rounds here, and benefitted from Novak Djokovic retiring after the first set of their semifinal. But he comes into his third Major final with some serious scar tissue from the first two.
At the 2020 US Open, in an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium during the pandemic, Sascha lost in five sets to Dominic Thiem, despite holding a two-sets-to-love lead. And this past June at Roland Garros, Zverev coughed up a two-sets-to-one lead to Carlos Alcaraz, again losing in five. The German has also suffered other painful five-set losses during earlier rounds of Majors.
We saw a similar matchup in Saturday night’s women’s singles final, where a dominant hard court player was upset by a player still fighting for their first Major, who also had a reputation of choking in big matches. However, upsetting Sinner in the best-of-five format on this surface is currently the ATP’s toughest task.
Yet if you consider their head-to-head, Zverev may have a serious chance. Sascha is 4-2 against Jannik, which includes a 3-1 record on this surface, and a 2-0 record at hard court Majors. And their two most recent meetings have been quick epic. In the round of 16 at the 2023 US Open, Zverev prevailed in a nearly five-hour five-setter. And last summer in Cincinnati, Sinner prevailed in a final-set tiebreak after over three hours of play.
If Sascha can have an excellent serving day, striking a large number of aces as well as winning a high percentage of first serve points, he’s capable of defeating this almost seemingly-unbeatable 2025 version of Jannik. Zverev will need to serve much better than he did in his last completed match, as against Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals, he only got 69% of first serves in, and struck nearly as many double faults as aces. Regardless, in a Slam final on a hard court, Sinner is a considerable favorite to win his third Major title on Sunday evening.
Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.
