Relive how Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner beat Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 in the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park Sunday.
The No. 1 seed prevailed over the No. 2 seed in a match ultimately decided by Zverev’s discomfort when coming forward, Sinner’s underrated first serve, and a kiss of death from the net.
It is Sinner’s second consecutive Australian Open title and his third Grand Slam singles title. Zverev has now played three Grand Slam singles finals, losing them all.
The Athletic’s writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the final and what it means for tennis.
How Zverev took the initiative — and lost the first set
Zverev didn’t want to potentially lose a third Grand Slam final while regretting not being aggressive enough. Against Sinner’s superior first strike game, it made some sense to try to get to the net and upset the world No. 1’s rhythm.
The plan was working OK until the eighth and decisive game of the first set. Zverev missed a routine backhand volley that would have sealed the game, before being passed behind a flat-footed net approach to concede a break point. He then saved a break point when Sinner missed a forehand pass, but the German was not close to the ball.
There was no reprieve a couple of points later, as Sinner whipped a forehand pass up the line that Zverev couldn’t control. He ended the first set winning five points out of 10 at the net, with Sinner winning four out of five. It was Zverev who was taking the initiative by coming forward, but his execution — as in the 2024 French Open final against Carlos Alcaraz — let him down.
To ram home the point, Sinner brought up his three set points with a clinical pair of volleys.
Zverev couldn’t convert his chances at the net. (David Gray / AFP via Getty Images)
Zverev improved his numbers at the net to 8/13 in the second set, but he was left stranded there again on one of its most important points. At the end of a 21-shot rally, Sinner ensured Zverev wouldn’t have a set point by ripping a backhand past him.
By the third set, Zverev pretty much decided to stop going to the net. He did so just four times, including being lured in on the final point of the match, winning only one of those points.
Charlie Eccleshare
How Sinner’s legs propel him to success
When Sinner loses to anyone besides Carlos Alcaraz, it’s often a result of his legs abandoning him in some way. The only moment he was truly on the ropes in this tournament was in the fourth round against Holger Rune, who caught him on a day when he was unwell and struggling with the heat of the afternoon.
He got through that moment, got his health back and largely cruised from there, because no one could get the ball past him with any consistency. It was clear from the first games Sunday night that Sinner’s feet were going to be able to do exactly what he wanted them to do.
The service break in the eighth game of the first set served as a perfect illustration. It happened with Zverev’s help, who messed up a series of volleys, but Sinner made him miss because he kept managing to get his feet behind the ball and take dead aim.
Sinner’s world-class movement sets him up to swing away on the biggest points. (Vincent Thian / Associated Press)
He earned his first break points of that game sprinting from a corner to near the net post to catch up with a drop volley for a pass down the line. He earned another with a trademark open-stance backhand from the corner that few other players would have gotten a clean swipe at.
He clinched the game with a slick forehand pass, but he seized control of the point early with his legs. Zverev cracked a 135mph first serve that Sinner blocked back from wide before sprinting for the T at the center of the baseline. Once he was there, only an error or big shot from Zverev was going to doom him.
Neither of those happened. When Sinner is moving like he was Sunday night, he doesn’t really lose.
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Why more than greater variety kept Sinner in the second set
There were no breaks of serve in the second set, but Sinner was under scoreboard pressure as a result of serving second. In these situations, one of the things that separates very good players like Zverev from players like Sinner is the way that the latter group continue to believe in what they’re doing even when things get tight.
With Zverev maintaining a deep-court position, Sinner started to sprinkle more drop shots into rallies. He did so twice to good effect when serving at 2-3, but when he tried it in the next game, he got too much loft on the shot and Zverev flicked away a backhand.
When serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Sinner used the shot again, but he dumped it into the net for 30-30. He was two points away from losing the set; he would have been forgiven for returning to the tried-and-tested baseline blasts. Instead, he used the drop shot on the very next point, and ended up winning it with a backhand pass.
A few minutes later, Sinner had won the tiebreak to move two sets up.
The greater variety he has compared to Zverev was a big advantage going into the match, but more important was his willingness to actually use it in the most important moments. On match point, he produced one last one, luring his opponent forward before passing him with a backhand.
Charlie Eccleshare
The net cord that turned the tide
In Shanghai last year, when Zverev ranted about his losing Grand Slam finals because of umpiring mistakes, he was tired, frustrated and looking for somewhere to vent about the feeling that the world was conspiring against him.
Sunday night, he was actually hit with an awful bit of luck at the worst possible moment. Serving at 4-4 in the second-set tiebreak, with the match in the balance, Sinner hit a forehand that hit the net tape, flew up and — after an agonising split-second wait — dropped onto Zverev’s side of the net. He was completely stranded, running up to the ball and catching it on its second bounce before staring into the crowd in disbelief.
Zverev could not believe his misfortune in the second-set tiebreak. (Frank Moller / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Sinner served out the set by winning the next two points, and Zverev was probably left wondering why this had happened to him again. At the French Open, he was on the receiving end of an overrule early in the fifth set that would have seen him break Alcaraz’s serve if not called, but the “error” was within the margin of error for the Hawk-Eye system that tracks the ball (but that the umpires at Roland Garros do not use.)
Zverev’s instant reaction to losing the point on Sunday betrayed his disbelief and he smashed his racket into his bag between sets, but he did steady himself at the start of the third.
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Why Sinner’s serving carried him through under the radar
The tennis world changed in late 2023 when Sinner went on the hard-court tear that he’s stayed on ever since. That was also when his serve went from being very good to somewhat ridiculous, which is about what it was Sunday night.
Sinner’s serve transformation came about because of two things he’d been working on: one for a while, another for a few months. The long-term shift was his effort to get strong enough to put a few more miles per hour on it.
The more immediate shift was a change he’d been working on that summer, moving from a platform stance — lifting with his feet apart — to a pinpoint stance, bringing his feet together for the jump. It got him an inch or two higher off the ground, allowing him to crack the ball from a higher apex, which generally makes a serve harder to handle.
How hard was it to handle Sunday night? Sinner didn’t face a break point in the entire match. As he built that insurmountable two-set lead, he won 88 percent of the points on his first serves, and 56 percent of points on second serves.
Sinner’s serve was relentless throughout the final. (Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP via Getty Images)
Like Novak Djokovic, Sinner doesn’t blow anyone off the court with his power, but he hits his spots as well as anyone. His first serve averaged 123mph, far off the lightning blasts of the best servers, including the guy on the other side of the net.
But Zverev could never get a good measure of where Sinner’s was going, and the Italian was serving so close to the lines it wouldn’t have really mattered if he had.
At 4-4 in the second set tiebreak, Sinner got his dose of good luck when that forehand smacked into the net tape and landed on the right side of it from his perspective. He made sure not to waste it, putting the hammer down with two serves that sent Zverev lunging off the court. One didn’t come back; the other gave Sinner an easy forehand chance from the middle of the court and that was just about that.
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The generational Grand Slam divide continues
There were two matches going on Sunday night for Sinner. The one he was playing against Zverev, which he handled pretty painlessly, and the one he and Alcaraz will be playing for the next decade or so to see who can win the most Grand Slams.
For better or for worse, one of the legacies of the ‘Big Three’ era of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was increased attention to that career number and decreased attention on just about everything else. This is what happens when three players win 66 Grand Slam titles over two decades.
Zverev, who is now 0-3 in Grand Slam finals, has said his other titles — the multiple Masters 1,000s, the two ATP Finals, the Olympic gold — don’t mean all that much to him at this point in his career compared with never winning a Grand Slam.
Sinner closed his Grand Slam gap to Alcaraz. (Dan Isitene / Getty Images)
Sunday night’s victory drew Sinner to within one of Alcaraz’s total of four Grand Slam titles. Where this race goes next is likely to be determined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which could rule on the side of the World Anti-Doping Agency in its appeal of a decision not to suspend Sinner for two positive drug tests last spring.
The other factor in Alcaraz’s favor is his superiority on the organic surfaces. Sinner still doesn’t look as comfortable on clay and grass as on hard courts. Alcaraz likes the hard courts, but has still managed to win a major on clay and two on grass. He also holds the edge in their head-to-head at 6-4, and he was 3-0 against Sinner last year, accounting for half of Sinner’s losses all season.
What did Sinner say after the final?
On court, Sinner said of Zverev: “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.”
Of his team, Sinner said: “It is an amazing feeling to share this moment with all of you.”
What did Zverev say after the final?
“We do all the right work but I’m just not good enough,” Zverev said of his team on court.
“You’re just too good,” Zverev said to Sinner. ”Nobody deserves a trophy more.”
In his news conference, Zverev said: “I serve better than Jannik. Everything else, he does better than me.
“At the end of the day, tennis has five or six massive shots, like massive factors, and he does four or five of them better than me. That’s the reason he won. He deserved to win today.”
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(Top photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
