Wimbledon final: Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to win maiden title

West Australian

2 days ago

Jannik Sinner has exorcised the wretched memory of his painful French Open title capitulation by defeating his great young rival Carlos Alcaraz and ripping away his Wimbledon crown.
In a fine final which never quite hit the extraordinary heights of their Roland-Garros thriller five weeks earlier, Sinner proved too icily consistent for the slightly under-par champion on a stiflingly warm afternoon on Centre Court on Sunday, prevailing 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 for his fourth grand slam title.
The 23-year-old world No.1 recovered from losing the first set, which Alcaraz wrapped up with the sensational shot of the match, to then largely control proceedings with the relentless ferocity and accuracy of his hitting to seal victory in four minutes over three hours.
'This was only a dream, it was far away where I'm from,' Sinner told the crowd after collecting the trophy from Kate, Princess of Wales. 'I'm just living my dream, it's amazing.'
The first ever champion from Italy, he'd delivered a masterclass of control and composure after the disappointment of losing a fairly flat first set when Alcaraz suddenly came up with some familiar magic to conjure up the set-winning break.
Sinner thought he'd saved the set point when he powered what seemed an unstoppable forehand deep into the corner only for the Spaniard to stretch and produce an unfeasibly brilliant backhand winner.
But Alcaraz threw in a sloppy service game straight afterwards - something he'd been guilty of more than once during his fortnight's defence - as Sinner greedily grasped the chance to hit back.
There were moments of sublime brilliance from the pair but just as many mistakes, with Sinner hitting 40 winners and the same number of unforced errors while Alcaraz's tally was 38 and 36.
But the real champagne stuff came early in the second set when Sinner had to delay his serve at a critical moment when a cork flew out from the crowd and nearly hit him.
It prompted the memorable rebuke from British umpire Alison Hughes: 'Ladies and gentlemen, please don't pop your champagne corks as the players are about to serve.'
'Only here at Wimbledon,' Sinner later observed dryly. 'But that's exactly why we love playing here. It's a very expensive tournament!'
At 5-4 up in the set, Sinner delivered his own champagne game, chasing down an Alcaraz drop shot and cracking a forehand winner down the line to bring up set point before slapping another winner cross-court.
From there, Alcaraz always looked in trouble, and it felt unsurprising when the relentless Italian struck again at 4-4, another huge forehand earning him the key break.
Another one came at 2-1 in the fourth, but Alcaraz, who had pulled off an incredible escape in Paris when he saved three championship points in a five-set, five-hour 29-minute epic, had no answers this time with his serve not functioning at its best.
And neither was there any sign of frailty from Sinner, who just wouldn't let him off the hook this time as he was able to savour a momentous triumph, his first victory over Alcaraz in his last six attempts as he handed the 22-year-old Spaniard his first defeat in a grand slam final.
Alcaraz had also been on a career-best 24-match unbeaten run, and had won 20 matches in a row at the All England Club, including victories against Novak Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals, yet he missed out on joining the elite group to have won three in a row.
Sinner's early season misery when he had to serve a doping ban seemed like ancient history as he added the Wimbledon crown to his Australian Open and US Open titles. If he had converted one of those match points at Roland Garros, he would now be holding all four titles.