Jannik Sinner cemented his status as the greatest player in the world as he beat Alexander Zverev in straight sets to defend his Australian Open title.
The world No 1, still only 23 years old, has won his last 21 matches in a row. He has three Grand Slams, with last year’s US Open to go with his two titles here.
At the moment, on a hard court, he is too good. He won this final 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 without conceding a single break point. There was one huge slice of luck, though, for a man who needs none. At 4-4 in the second-set tiebreak, Sinner struck a forehand which clipped the net and hopped over for a winner.
But you make your own luck though and, while I’m not sure there is a law of physics to justify this, I always feel like the harder a ball is hit into the net tape the more likely it is to make its way over. To adapt the famous Gary Player quote, the harder I hit it, the luckier I get.
And Sinner hit it harder than Zverev; he was more proactive, more aggressive and more creative. The German has now played three Grand Slam finals and is still searching for a breakthrough.
The 27-year-old has long faced accusations of passivity in the biggest matches. Despite his 6ft 6in height and 140mph serve he too often sets up camp behind the baseline. It feels like all Zverev is doing is waiting for his opponent to play badly – and he’ll have a hell of a long wait on his hands against Sinner.
Jannik Sinner has won the Australian Open with a straight sets victory over Alexander Zverev
Sinner’s ballstriking was too clean, too precise. And, in some ways, so was Zverev’s: stroking the ball consistently back and forth is playing to Sinner’s strengths.
You need an agent of chaos like Tristan Schoolkate, the Aussie who took a set off him in the second round, or Ben Shelton, who should have won the first set of their semi-final, to trouble Sinner on a hard court. Or a genius shotmaker like Alcaraz.
Zverev had actually won four of their six meetings but those date back to Sinner’s early years on the tour. He has been a different animal since the back end of 2023. His is a lanky, spare physique and he is still in the process of filling out that 6ft 4in frame.
His counter-attacking play has developed immensely. He slides on a hard court as if it is clay, or indeed the slopes where he was a junior champion skier, and that allows him to take balls others would defend and half-volley a whiplash forehand.
Let’s talk about that forehand for a second. In its beautiful and terrifying violence, the way the racket whips around his shoulder on the follow-through it is reminiscent of the Tiger Woods golf swing. Like Woods, Sinner has emerged and simply hit the ball harder than anyone else; the sound off the racket, or club, is in a different key.
Alcaraz and others can outpace Sinner with a one-off shot but for consistent, rhythmic power there is no one to touch him.
To Zverev’s credit, he did at least try to take the match to his opponent. He approached the net 26 times and tried to hit through his forehand more than usual. But that is not his game and it showed, Sinner picking him off at the net and the Zverev forehand leaking errors.
So Sinner’s dominance remains total. He will be a favourite at every hard court event for the foreseeable future. His next mission is to make further inroads on the natural surfaces of clay and grass. The French Open and Wimbledon were both won by Alcaraz last year and Sinner must aim to nick at least one.
Whether he will even have the chance, though, depends on a couple of days in Lausanne in April. Sinner’s doping case, of which he was initially absolved with no fault, is now before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with World Anti-Doping seeking a ban. A two month ban would put him out of Roland Garros; four months would nix Wimbledon, too.
That doping cloud was one of two elephants crammed on to Rod Laver Arena. The other applied to Zverev, whose domestic abuse case brought by the mother of his child was settled in June with no decision on guilt or innocence. That was the second accusation of domestic violence levelled against him, with no charges pressed in the first instance.
Perhaps partly because of those two issues, the atmosphere was muted on Rod Laver Arena, and it largely stayed that way as it became increasingly clear this was no contest.
On a tennis court at least, Sinner is untouchable.
