Jannik Sinner defended his Wimbledon trophy Sunday in a four-set victory against Germany’s Alexander Zverev that lasted nearly four hours.
After winning a 23-shot marathon to avoid going down breakpoint, the Italian hit a forehand winner to win the championship 6(7)–7, 7–6(2), 6–3, 6–4, and fell on his back in celebration.
“There’s no better place, honestly, to play tennis. Standing here, you can feel the nerves [on] Sunday morning when you wake up, you know that this is ... a very, very special day,” the world No. 1 seed said after the match on Centre Court. “You never know how many times you can come back on Sunday, so I never take things for granted.”
After Zverev won a close first-set tiebreak and Sinner leveled the match in the second, the German slipped during a pivotal chance to break in the third set, losing his only break point of the match.
In the next game, Sinner also slipped with a chance to break, but was able to get up and convert the first break point of the match. Afterwards, Zverev threw his racket in frustration.
Sinner was able to break again in the fourth set before clinching his fifth Grand Slam and second Wimbledon title in a row.
The victory marked Sinner’s ninth straight victory against Zverev, and he’s now held his serve an astonishing 87 consecutive times against the German.
Despite Sunday’s loss, Zverev was finally able to win his first Grand Slam at the French Open last month against Flavio Cobolli, after coming close in multiple major finals.
He was also able to make his first Wimbledon final this year after previously never making it out of the fourth round, and suffering a first-round loss at the All England Club last year.
“To my team ... we had an amazing two months,” the 29-year-old said in the on-court interview. “This is the first time I believe I can actually win this [Wimbledon] trophy.”
Zverev passed seven-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz, who is still nursing an injury, in ATP rankings to become the world’s No. 2 seed.
Still firmly ahead by almost 5,000 points, Sinner has been dominant this year in Masters 1000 tournaments, winning a record six consecutive titles extending back to the end of last year.
However, the 24-year-old suffered a shocking second-round defeat in the French Open as he struggled with heat, and had a slow start this Wimbledon, going down two-sets-to-one in his first match with a bloodied shoe.
Since that first round, Sinner didn’t drop a set until the final and captured his first Grand Slam since Wimbledon last year.
