Jannik Sinner beat Alexander Zverev with plenty to spare, winning the Australian Open for the second year in a row
That, then, is us. Thanks all for your company, today and over the last two weeks – it’s been a blast. I’ve not a clue what we’re going to do tomorrow, but in the meantime, we’ve got plenty for you today, starting here:
Otherwise, though, peace and love.
Tumaini Carayol’s match report is with us:
As discussed, there are lesson here for all of us.
Sinner does his best to look modest, then a grin creeps across his face and he calmly raises, but doesn’t hoist his trophy. He turns to Zverev first – “A tough day for you,” he says, trying to be kind but unavoidably patronising his easily vanquished foe. “You’re an amazing player, keep believing in yourself,” he adds, saying everyone knows how strong he is as a player and person, and that he’s good enough to win a biggie soon.
He then moves on to his team and family, singling out Darren Cahill, who plans to retire at the end of the year, though Sinner hopes to persuade him to continue.
Otherwise he thanks the tournament director, praising the “most special grand slam”, the sponsors, the ball kids and the umpires; he’s so composed in what is one of the greatest moments of his life that it’s almost unsettling. He knows, though, that this is him: this is what he does and this is what he’s going to do. He’s already got three and there’s every chance he nabs a couple of these a year every year for the next decade.
Now here comes Sinner…
Zverev forces a smile as he collects and displays his runners-up plate, then shouts from the crowd – I’m not sure about what as I can’t hear, so I’m not going to guess.
“It sucks standing next to this thing and not being to touch it, he begins. I think he means the trophy, but he might just as easily mean Sinner.
He then congratulates the champ as “the best player in the world by far,” saying he hoped he could be more competitive today but Sinner is “just too good”. He and his team have done all the work, all the right things, and there’s no one who deserves the trophy more.
Zverev then turns to his team, saying t hey too are trying to do the work, “but I’m just not good enough”; brutal, but unarguable. He thanks all those who’ve helped him come back from his ankle injury, then Craig Tiley the tournament director, saying the crowd have no idea how difficult the players are but he still puts on the best event in the world.
Finally, he thanks the crowd, “nothing but amazing to me”, saying they pushed him through to the final. “I really did think I had a chance but here I am”, he says. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to lift the trophy but I’ll keep coming back, I’ll keep trying, and I’ll see you guys all next year.”
Yup, for the first time, I think, he’s where Andy Murray was after Wimbledon 2012. I’m not sure he’s quite got the game to get away from there.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Zverev so distraught, even after he lost in Paris last year. There was a clarity and inevitability to this slapping, an ease and and calmness, that makes it harder to recover from than a lead given up, because the difference between the players was chasmic.
Jayne Hrdlicka, chair of Tennis Australia, congratulates Sinner, noting he’s dropped just two sets in retaining his tittle – and he was ill for one of those! – before telling Zverev he’ll get there. Zverev does not look like he agrees, already on the verge of tears – he’s lucky Hazel Irvine won’t be conducting his post-match interview – his face-muscles pulled taut to keep the lips from wobbling. We’ve all been there.
Everyone involved is thanked and there are particular cheers for the ball kids, their necks covered to protect them from the glare of the moon. Now, here comes John Newcombe to present the trophy, delivered by Will Cartwright, the ball kid of the tournament.
The presentation team are ready.
Zverev, meanwhile, is desolate. He’s tried everything and he’s been trying everything for years, only to be beaten up and beaten down, the issue not just what’s happened today but what’s coming in the future. He well knows he may not be able to improve enough to challenge, never mind beat Sinner in this kind of form, as he does Sinner’s ability to hit a comparable level over and over again.
Sinner celebrates with his team, his performance understated but near-perfect. He made world number two looks as threatening as a pair of plastic underpants and is now, with three, the, er, most-winningest Italian man in grand slam history. He will not finish with three.
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 5-2 Zverev An error from Sinner hands over 0-15, but Zverev barely even looks at a forehand winner down the line – he’s so far back, but also, he’s about to barf up the entirety of his soul – then an ace on to the T makes 30-15. And though an again level the game it’s soon 40-30 and championship point, tension rising when a serve is long. But Zverev hasn’t been able to do much with Sinner’s second delivery and shonuff his best drop of the match opens the court for yet another backhand cross-court winner! Sinner is the champ for the second year in a row!
Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 5-3 Zverev* Zverev has slaved all his life to compete in matches like this, his father closer to the classic sporting dad than the more enlightened type all of dads reading this are – and would still be given offspring of elite potential. But he makes Sinner serve for it, holding to 15 – the 15 is a glorious forehand whipcrack winner from the champ, who’s not yet been broken in the match.
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 5-2 Zverev 0-15 quickly becomes 15-all, Zverev unable to control the unforceds – in this set, it’s 11-1, and in the match as a whole he’s only taken five points when Sinner’s landed a first serve. But there’s another, achieved via superb forehand down the line … problem being it’s at 40-15. Still, pressure reduced given the state of the arrears, he then incites a forehand error to raise deuce; naturally a service winner follows, the way Sinner’s played the big points even more impressive than the way he’s played in general. And though he can’t convert his first advantage, he powers to and through his second; he’s a game but also levels away.
“Like many,” begins Kerrith Britland, “I enjoyed Fed’s (and now Djoker’s) twilight years because it kinda forced them to play their most aggressive style – seeing some of the greatest of all time play that way is, I’m sure you’ll agree, a sight to behold. What a shame we didn’t get to see this iteration of Novak try and figure out a way past Jannik, whose autopilot looks more than enough to take this one in straight sets.”
I couldn’t see Djokovic beating Alcaraz, Zverev and Sinner one after the other – he’ll want to sort his ranking for that reason – but agree he’d have made more of a match of it than the German is managing. His quarter-final display was masterful.
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 4-2 Zverev Two errors hand Sinner 0-30 and though a big serve halves the deficit, a netted forehand after a weak second serve puts Zverev on the edge at 15-40; real talk, it feels like both men know this match is over, the title more likely to be settled by tame subsidence than a blazing brilliance. And shonuff, though Zverev saves one break point, a forehand soon sails long and that feels like that, the German equal parts mystified and resigned.
“I’ve been thinking a while that Zverev is very able to catch a record, but not really one anyone would like to have,” emails Johan Denis. “That is ... very able to catch the record from Ferrer, the very decent Spanish player who amassed something like 730 match wins on the Tour, a record for a guy who didn’t win a Slam.”
Yesterday, I thought that Zverev would get one eventually and I’m not on for changing opinions based on such scant evidence, but watching this, it feels like a career-changing beating – not in its severity but in its simplicity.
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 3-2 Zverev Sinner makes 15-0 – for the 12th time in what is his 14th service game, having not yet been broken. Very quickly, it’s 40-0, and when a backhand falls wide, it’s a 15th hold. This is so, so impressive from the champ: he’s making a fantastic player and athlete look tentative and underpowered.
Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 2-2 Zverev* It’s a funny thing really: generally speaking, the way sportsfolk play reflects their personality. But here it’s the reverse, the reserved Sinner more enterprising and proactive than the more effervescent and extrovert Zverev. It’s the champ taking balls on the rise, looking for lines, and finishing points, the challenger struggling to match his aggression and abandon. And that contrast has me returning to what Our Maddy said yesterday, a lesson not just for Zverev but for us all: validation comes from within not from without, and self-acceptance allows for self-expression and self-actualisation.
I finally got to the point where I was OK if it didn’t happen,” she said. “I didn’t need it to feel I had a good career or that I deserved to be talked about as a great player. Finally letting go of that internal talk gave me the ability to go out and play some really good tennis to win a grand slam.”
Anyroad, Zverev holds easily enough, but can he find something on the Sinner serve?
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 2-1 Zverev Ach, down 30-0 Zverev tries everything, but it’s like a middleweight fighting a heavyweight, everything he tries absorbed and coming back with interest. Seemingly in control of the next point at the net, he dumps his volley, then a coruscating backhand cross is far, far too good, and that’s the love-hold secured. This is a classic close-but-not-close contest.
Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 1-1 Zverev* Sinner does really well from the back to make 15-all, but Zverev finds a fine serve out wide, easily tidied via venomous backhand. An ace down the T then raises 40-15 but there’s a desperation about the German: he can feel the match but also, in a way, his career, slipping out of his control. And though he finds a big serve when he needs it to secure his hold, he’s moping about now – exactly what the freak of nature over the other side of the net wants to see. And exactly what Zverev knows that freak of nature over the other side of the net wants to see, but he can’t help himself.
*Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) 1-0 Zverev I’d not be at all surprised if Sinner held then broke – Zverev has been ticking for a while, already frustrated with not playing his best stuff before that net-cord came along to effectively settle a set into which he’d invested everything. Ultimately, though, that’s not even source of the sickness, rather the fear that he’s got several more years of investing every part of him into reaching this stage only to encounter an adversary who moves that bit better, hits that bit harder and stays that bit cooler. Sinner holds to 15 and looks impregnable out there. As we said earlier, knowing versus hoping.
Sinner 6-3 7-6(4) Zverev And Sinner only needs one, a forehand on to the sideline meaning the champ is two sets up and close to home. Zverev, now in a bate with the world, attacks his racket, and he’ll know as well as us, the chances of him winning from here are blue-Rizla slim.
Sinner 6-3 6-6 (6-4) Zverev But just when you expect Sinner to force home the advantage, an error means a fourth mini-break in a row, levelling us up at 3-3; a service winner follows, bringing with it some scoreboard pressure. And when Zverev has to rely on a second serve, he’ll be wondering … then relieved his opponent botches the kind of return he’s making a career out of nailing. Gosh, but when a Sinner forehand clips the top of the tape and dies, he’s two serves away from the set and Zverev will be feeling nauseous, that the cosmos will never be on his side. … injustice compounded when a service-winner follows. Two set-points coming up…
Sinner 6-3 6-6 (3-2) Zverev Zverev is playing with greater freedom now and a big forehand makes 1-0, but a huge serve out wide is backed up by a swing-volley and that’s 1-1, the sense that the German is fully extending himself just to stick in while the Italian is relaxed with plenty in reserve. But as I type he goes long on the forehand, Zverev now up 2-1 with the mini-break … only to go log witha forehand of his own. It shouldn’t mean much, it can happen, except it keeps happening, and as such the sense that Sinner will do whatever is asked of him to win this match remains inescapable … all the more so when another forehand error means it’s Sinner with the advantage at 3-2.
*Sinner 6-3 6-6 Zverev … and Zverev loops the first return of the game on to the angle of sideline and baseline … only to then net. He just can’t find enough good shots in row or enough one-shot kills to really have Sinner wondering, needing a double at 30-0 to give him the sniff of a sniff. But then the champ drops into the net and suddenly Zverev is two points away from set two! Can he find the kind of return he needs to force the issue? Well, he’s got a second serve at which to go but is soon hauled to the net … then sent back chasing a lob, the rally of the match, of most matches, going both ways … with Zverev now in control at the net … only for Sinner to diddle him with a majestic backhand winner down the line having run 81m in the point! That is soul-crushingly good and from there, he closes out – though again, Zverev is well in the rally until he errs. So here comes the breaker, the match the most even it’s been so far…
Sinner 6-3 5-6 Zverev* Zvrerev will know – much as he’ll reason with himself to the contrary – that if Sinner takes this second set, he’s five to cooked, a man who’s forsaken a two-set grand-slam final lead against one who’s retrieved one. That brings with it a significant amount of unease, but he does really well to hold to 15, guaranteeing himself a tiebreaker – at least. The problem he has is that Sinner is almost impervious to pressure…
*Sinner 6-3 5-5 Zverev Sinner goes long and, at 0-15, by the standard this represents a chance for Zverev … all the more so when the champ nets a backhand! Naturally a big first -serve and clean-up drive-volley follow, then a service winner, then a service winner, attacking the German’s gyppy forehand, but it’s a backhand into the net that cedes the hold. Everything Zverev tries, Sinner has something just a bit better in response.
Sinner 6-3 4-5 Zverev* A breaker, of course, can be decided on one winner or error, and the way Sinner’s playing, that’s what Zverev will need; I’m minded of Michael Stich’s 4-6 7-6 7-6 7-6 semi-final victory over Stefan Edberg at Wimbledon in 1991. My internet then lags so I don’t see how her holds, but he holds; Zverev that is, not Stich.
*Sinner 6-3 4-4 Zverev Excellent stuff from both players, Zverev measuring his approach far better and marching in confidently, Sinner on the slide and stretch … to somehow spirit a forehand winner cross-court! That’s got to be demoralising for the challenger, who does make 40-15 only to wham a forehand long. He just can’t get anything going on return, but if he can hold twice more he’ll have a shot at a breaker.
Sinner 6-3 3-4 Zverev* You have access to the best sports gear in the world and a name big enough to specify what you want, yet the get-up of neither even matches, let alone shows any sense of style; burgundy and red versus primrose and white, I really do not know. Back to the less important stuff, though, Zverev holds to 30 and will hope that a bit of scoreboard pressure persuades Sinner to drop his level.
