Tennis Now

Super Sinner Sweeps Zverev in AO Final for Third Grand Slam Crown

By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, January 26, 2025

Super Sinner Sweeps Zverev in AO Final for Third Grand Slam Crown

Powerful precision is Jannik Sinner’s signature strength.

World No. 1 Sinner delivered damaging displacement today.

More: Keys Dethrones Sabalenka to win Maiden Major in Classic

Solidifying his status as hard-court king, Sinner shredded Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 In the Australian Open final successfully defending his AO championship with command.

It is Sinner’s career-best 21st consecutive victory—he has not lost since bowing to Carlos Alcaraz in the Beijing final last fall—and his 21st straight Grand Slam hard-court victory.

"Well, it was an amazing performance from my side. I felt like I was in the beginning of the match serving really well and trying to get into the zone very fast," Sinner told the media in Melbourne. "It was a very high-quality from my side. Second set, got a bit lucky in the tiebreak, as we saw.

"All things considered, amazing run again here in Australia. I'm extremely happy. Sharing this with the team here and family and the people I love, it's amazing."



Afterward, Sinner credited his coaches, Simone Vagnozzi and Aussie Darren Cahill, who announced this 2025 season is his final year of coaching, in his victory speech. 

"It's amazing to achieve these things, but mostly to share with you guys," Sinner said. "I know Darren, this is maybe, probably your last Australian Open as a coach.

"I’m very, very happy to share this trophy with you. Everything started a little bit when I made my whole change also to Simone and I think you are an amazing combination of coaches and also the phsyio I’m very happy to have you all here thank you very much."



At age 23, former junior ski champion Sinner has landed a milestone. Sinner’s three Grand Slam championships are the most by any Italian—man or woman—ever and he’s the 11th man in the Open Era to successfully defend Oz. The hard-hitting Italian has won 80 of his last 86 matches overall, including 17 of his last 20 against Top 5-ranked opponents. Sinner joins Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in winning three consecutive hard-court Grand Slams.

Set superlative stats aside for a moment and reflect on what we saw in this final.

Sinner did not face a break point and earned 12 break points against the 2024 ATP Ace leader. In his seven-match run to the title, Sinner surrendered just two sets and competed with command against the 2020 Olympic gold medal champion.

The owner of 19 career titles did it all with WADA's appeal of his doping case hanging over his head. The Court of Abritration for Sport will reach a final decision on Sinner's case in April. If the CAS rules in WADA's favor this could be Sinner's final Grand Slam appearance for a while.

Prescient court positioning, proactive strikes and his superb skill elevating his game at closing time all separated the world No. 1 from the world No. 2.

Even when Zverev seemed to shrink the gap, Sinner had an authoritative answer to deepen the divide.

Wearing a lemon polo shirt and matching cap, Sinner squeezed Zverev in baseline rallies repeatedly punishing the German’s weaker forehand wing until it fluttered and crumbled under that duress.

Sinner’s skill striking on the run, terrific timing to take the ball on the rise and more controlled firepower on the forehand saw him flash 32 winners while drawing 24 forehand errors from Zverev.

Displaced by the Italian's drives, Zverev was often operating well behind the baseline near the Melbourne sign affixed to the court which made it tougher for him to change direction down the line.

It is Zverev’s third Grand Slam final loss—and by far his flattest performance in a major final.

Despite a woman screaming in protest from the crowd before Zverev spoke, the second seed was gracious in defeat.

"First of all it sucks standing here next to this thing and not being able to touch it, I’ll be honest," Zverev told the crowd. "Congratulations to Jannik—you more than deserve it—you’re the best player in the world by far.

"I mean, I was hoping that I could be more of a competitor today, but you’re just too good. It’s as simple as that. Congratulations to you—you really deserve it—congrats to your team as well. You’ve done all the right things, you’ve done all the work and there’s no one that deserves this trophy more."

In the Roland Garros final last June, Zverev was one set from the title before Carlos Alcaraz fought off the German 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in a four hour, 19-minute marathon to capture his first Roland Garros championship with a fervent finish. Zverev carried a 10-1 record in Roland Garros five-setters into the final set of the 2024 final but could not close and ran out of gas.

Zverev endured the stinging pain of coming achingly close to a maiden major only to lose a lead again. At the 2020 US Open, Zverev held two sets to love lead over Dominic Thiem before tightening up and bowing in five sets.

Though Zverev carried 4-2 edge over Sinner in their head-to-head series, including winning two of their three major meetings, onto Rod Laver Arena tonight he didn’t compete with the same level of self-belief. After Sinner benefitted from a lucky let-cord winner to go up 5-4 in today’s second set tiebreaker, the Italian was inspired and Zverev looked dejected.

It is the third consecutive Grand Slam hard-court crown for Sinner, who is the eighth man in Open Era history to win his first three major finals.



This final marked the 12th time in Open Era history the top two seeds met in the Australian Open men’s singles final.

Facing another double break point dilemma in the eighth game, Zverev pumped a smash and punished a 139 mph wide serve—his biggest of the set—to save both break points.

The forehand failed the German on game point, then a sliding Sinner burned him with a backhand bolt down the line for his fifth break point of the match. Zverev denied it.

Piling up pressure, Sinner converted his sixth break point. Luring Zverev forward, Sinner spun a forehand pass down the line scoring first-break blood for 5-3.




Though Sinner’s net play is still a work in progress, he had his nose over the net picking off a pair of volleys for triple set point.



The champion cracked his third ace out wide stamping a love hold for a one-set lead after 46 minutes.

Good news for Zverev: He served 81 percent and hit four aces and no double faults.

Bad news for Zverev: Despite those gaudy serving stats, he faced six break points, looked shaky at net and suffered some forehand fragility hitting nine of his 12 errors from his weaker forehand wing.

Shrewdly exploiting his opponent’s weaknesses, Sinner drew a netted forehand volley by a botched volley to go up love-30.

Tugging at the bottom of his crimson shirt, a jittery Zverev spit up his first double fault to face double break point in the third game. Zverev saved both break points with successive smashes. The German’s sixth ace helped him escape stress holding for 2-1.

The world No. 2 threatened at love-30 on Sinner’s serve in the 10th game. The top seed rose to the challenge cracking first serves in holding to level after 10 games.

The most precarious point of this plot line came with Sinner serving at 5-6, 30-all.

The pair collaborated on a crackling rally that spilled to all areas of the court. Zverev applied pressure, but Sinner smacked a backhand winner to prevail in a rousing rally that brought fans to their feet. Had Sinner lost that point he would have faced set point. Instead, Zverev missed a forehand as the second set escalated into the tiebreaker.



Four consecutive mini breaks spiked tiebreaker tension. At 4-all, fortune favored Sinner—and flipped the tiebreaker.

A Sinner forehand cashed into the top of the tape, popped up and plopped over giving him the key mini break and a 5-4 lead. Zverev never recovered from that tape shot.

Sinner showed strong closing power sliding the wide serve then drilling a diagonal dart of a forehand to seal the breaker and a two-set lead.

It was Sinner’s 16th win in his last 18 tiebreakers—and was a heartbreaker for the second seed.

A raging Zverev pulled a mini Marcos Baghdatis slamming his Head racquet off his racquet bag repeatedly knowing how close he was to leveling the final—and how far away the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup was from his grasp.

Throwing his hands up in a “what can I do to hurt this guy” expression, Zverev’s body language telegraphed his dire dilemma.

Serving at 2-3, double-break point, Zverev saved one break with a backhand down the line.

On this night, a deflated Zverev had no answer for a sharp Sinner shredding him in forehand-to-forehand exchanges on pivotal points. The US Open champion cracked crosscourt forehands, drawing a 22nd forehand error from Zverev to break for 4-2.

Serving for his third major championship at 30-all, Sinner went to the fail-safe play of striking deep down the middle to Zverev’s forehand eventually drawing an errant forehand for championship point.



A drop shot set up a backhand pass as hard-court king Sinner retained his crown with a routine two hour 42-minute triumph.

Afterward, Sinner said he learned he can play offensive tennis as a defending Slam champion.

"Of course, you have maybe this little extra pressure and attention on your side, which you have to handle," Sinner said. "But in the other way, you know that you can do it because you've done it once. You try to understand whatever it is.

"What I understood this time is every day is different. You have days where you might feel a bit not 100%, and then the next match all of a sudden, Okay, I'm into the tournament.

"I think I've learned many things throughout one year, not watching about result, but how I am as a person and how I handle the situation on the court. Yeah, it is different, though. So I'm very happy to have it."

 

Design by Tennis Now Team