24 Jan 2025; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Jannik Sinner from Italy celebrates during his match against Ben Shelton in America’s United States in the semi -finals of Men’s singles at the 2025 Australian Open in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Pictures Italy’s Jannik Sinner showed why he is the No. 1 player in the world on Sunday when he used his power from the baseline and a consistently serving to defeat Alexander Zverev from Germany to win his second Australian Open Singles title.
Sinner needed two hours, 42 minutes to publish 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory in Melbourne. With his victory at the US Open last fall, Sinner has won three of the last five Grand Slam Men’s titles.
Against Zverev, he did not meet a breaking point and won 84 percent of the score on his first serving and 63 percent on his second serving.
“He is in another universe right now for someone else,” Zverev said about Sinner, comparing him to the 24 o’clock Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic in his premiere.
Sinner, 23, has now won 21 matches in a row in tough courts. He is the first player since Djokovic 2015-16 who won three tough court tournaments in a row.
The first Italian man to win three majors, he is also the first man to defend his first major championship since Rafael Nadal did it 2005-06.
In the second set -tiebreaker, Zverev had a chance to turn the tidal of the match but could not. Tied at 4 points, he lost the service, and Sinner won the next two points to get up 2-0.
Sinner sailed through the third set and ended with 32 winners and 27 unmatched errors, compared with 25 and 45 respectively for Zverev. The German hit 12 ace.
Zverev tried to be aggressive in the match and take sins from the baseline and to the net, but the Italian turned out to be productive there and won 77 percent (10 out of 13) of his shots there.
Sinner thanked his team after the match to help him prepare to win another Australian Open.
“To my team, what can I say. We worked a lot to be again in this position,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to share this moment with you all.”
Zverev, 27, has cemented his title as the best active player – and perhaps the best ever – never to win a major. The match against Sinner was his third Grand Slam final, after a crushing five-set loss to Dominic Thiem in 2020 US Open and a defeat in the hands of Carlos Alcaraz at French Open 2024.
In a gripping moment after the match, Sinner embraced a tear -eyed Zverev on the track and gave him encouraging words.
“I was pretty down,” Zverev said. “I was pretty emotional too at that stage. I think he saw it. He said I would definitely lift one of these trophies in my career. I’m too good not to. It’s his word.”
It is clear that Sinner and Alcaraz are the next two sticks on tennis next big three, prepared to inherit the title from Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer.
Zverev said he has some to catch up to do if he is to play at Sinner’s level.
“He completely surpassed me. From the back of the court he completely surpassed me,” said Zverev, who still leads Sinner 4-3 in their main-head game. “As I said, I earn better than him, but that’s it. He makes everything else better than me. He moves better than me. He meets his forehand better than me. He meets his backhand better than me. He returns better than me .
“At the end of the day, tennis has five or six massive shots, like massive factors, and he makes four or five of them better than me. That’s the reason he won. He deserved to win today.”
-Field level media
