Jannik Sinner described his triumph at Wimbledon as particularly special considering his painful defeat at the French Open, after he recovered from a difficult first set to secure his second Wimbledon title with an impressive 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 win against the second seed Alexander Zverev.
Sinner, the world No 1, successfully defended his Wimbledon title to clinch his fifth grand slam singles title and 30th championship overall. Last month, he was heavily favoured to win his first French Open but he lost in the second round against Juan Manuel Cerúndolo after leading by two sets and 5-1. He has bounced back at the first opportunity.
“I think every grand slam is different,” he said. “Different story, different environment, different feelings before the tournament. For me this one means a lot because it was a tough one after Paris again.
“Last year was also tough. But coming here, I tried to put myself in the best possible position to be as competitive as possible. We put in a lot of workdays in Monaco, very, very long. Definitely sacrificing a lot of my time and everything to be in this position. Having this achievement, it means a lot to me. It was an amazing day today.”
Sinner secured his victory with a spectacular serving display against one of the biggest servers in the world in Zverev. Sinner did not drop his serve and faced just one break point in their 3hr 46min on the court.
It took Sinner a few years to adjust his game to grass, but in recent years it has clearly become one of his most favoured surfaces. He has paired his significant service improvements with better volleys, drop shots and defence on grass.
“The only thing I’m very happy about is that I’m trying to do my best every day,” Sinner said. “Sometimes you have a tournament with a good outcome, and sometimes you just don’t have. There’s nothing you can really do about it.
“There is no failure if you don’t win a grand slam. It’s very, very rare. Now I have five in my whole life. We talk about five grand slams. But at the end of the day, it’s five days of so many other days. You just want to enjoy it. Today was a very tough day. If I lose, it’s still a great day. Playing a grand slam final, it’s so rare and so special. So for me, I never take things for granted.”
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Speaking on court after defeat, Zverev was magnanimous about his opponent. “He’s shown once again why he’s the best player in the world,” he said. “It was great to share Centre Court with you in the final this weekend, unfortunately it didn’t go my way, but congratulations to you first of all.
“We had a pretty good two months, I’d say, even though we lost this final. We had an amazing two months, we came into Wimbledon never reaching a quarter-final and we played our first Wimbledon final. At 29 years old, it’s the first time I actually believe I can win this trophy [in the future].”
