Jannik Sinner claimed his second consecutive Australian Open championship yesterday, never facing a single break point and using his complete game to outplay and frustrate Alexander Zverev for a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory in the final.
Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian, is the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy two years in a row since Jim Courier in 1992 and 1993.
Sinner rose to No. 1 in June last year, remaining there for every week since, and the gap between him and No. 2-ranked Zverev was pronounced as can be in Rod Laver Arena. This was the first Australian Open final between the men at No. 1 and No. 2 since 2019, when No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal — also in straight sets.
Photo: AP
Since the start of last season Sinner has won three of the five major tournaments, including the US Open in September, and his record in that span is 80-6 with a total of nine tournament titles. His current unbeaten run covers 21 matches, dating to last year.
The only thing that has clouded the past 12 months for Sinner is a doping case in which he was cleared by a ruling that was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He tested positive for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid twice last March, but blamed it on an accidental exposure involving two members of his team who have since been fired. Sinner initially was exonerated in August last year, a hearing in the WADA appeal is scheduled for April.
While Sinner became the eighth man in the Open era — which began in 1968 — to start his career 3-0 in Grand Slam finals, Zverev is the seventh to be 0-3, adding this loss to those at the 2020 US Open and the 2024 French Open.
The earlier setbacks came in five sets. This contest was not that close. Not at all.
Separately, Novak Djokovic rounded on his critics on Saturday the day after retiring injured in his Australian Open semi-final after the first set against Alexander Zverev to boos from the crowd at the tournament he has won 10 times.
The Serb put on an inspired performance to beat Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals, but could not continue on Friday after losing the opener 7-6 (5) to Zverev, drawing jeers from some sections of the crowd at Rod Laver Arena.
The former world No. 1 responded on Saturday, posting a photo of an MRI taken of his left hamstring on the social media platform X with the caption: “Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there.”
It was not immediately clear from the image what diagnosis Djokovic received.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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