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Sinner defends the title in Australia against Zverev, for whom finals seem to weigh him down

Sinner Australia
Jannik Sinner en el Abierto de Australia / KYODO NEWS - ACTION PRESS
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MELBOURNE – Jannik Sinner champion is starting to become a repetitive title: on Sunday the Italian won the Australian Open for the second consecutive year, in a final that confirmed how much the German Alexander Zverev is weighed down by finals.

Sinner, world number one, won 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3 in a flat, uninspiring and at times soporific match. He also became the Italian with the most Grand Slam titles, surpassing Nicola Pietrangeli’s two Roland Garros in the amateur era of tennis.

Sinner
Sinner, after winning in Australia, consoles a saddened Zverev over his defeat.

Zverev played a patient game, with many shots to the centre of the court to avoid giving Sinner angles in Australia. The plan turned the match, especially the first set, into a tedious exchange from the baseline between two players with two-handed backhands and similar playing patterns.

The problem with the German is that his tennis remains undefined. Does he play to be patient or to take the initiative? After a clear improvement in his serve in recent times – he began to hit the ball lower – Zverev has another area to focus on: making the most of his size and physical power to stand two metres further forward and stop being the defensive tennis player he was outplayed as on Sunday at the Rod Laver Arena. It is the German’s third Grand Slam final and the third he has lost.

For Sinner, the outlook is different. The Italian is consolidating his position as world number one and his biggest challenge is off the court: to successfully overcome the hearing in April to which he was summoned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

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Although the final in Australia was devoid of brilliant or emotional moments, Sinner demonstrated the high level of his game at the end: he hit a drop shot with his forehand to draw Zverev to the net and then passed the German with an impeccable backhand cross. After congratulating his rival, Zverev slumped in his chair, completely crushed.

Sinner approached to embrace and console the German, who could not hold back his tears. He engaged in conversation, trying to encourage and revitalise him, while the German could only nod. Then he paid his respects at the awards ceremony: ‘Another tough day for you. Keep believing in yourself, because all of us involved in this sport know not only how strong you are as a player, but also as a person’.

Moments earlier, Zverev had harshly analysed his third defeat in as many Grand Slam finals.

‘You are the best player in the world, by far. I was hoping to be more competitive today. I thank my team, we tried to do the best job, but I’m not good enough, it’s as simple as that,’ said the German, who joined Czech-American Ivan Lendl, American Andre Agassi, Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, UK’s Andy Murray, Austria’s Dominic Thiem and Norway’s Casper Ruud as a player to lose his first three Grand Slam finals.

The German must have heard a woman in the stands berating him before the awards ceremony even began about the case of gender violence that was filed last year by the Justice Department: ‘Australia believes Olya and Brenda!’

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“Good for her. I think she was the only one in the stadium who believed anything in that moment”, said Zverev afterwards.

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