Seismic win for Sinner, Swiatek silences doubters: Wimbledon takeaways

The National

11 hours ago

The Wimbledon fortnight has come to a close; here are the biggest takeaways from SW19.
An important win for Sinner, in more ways than one
One of the greatest things about tennis is that even if you've just suffered the most heart-wrenching defeat of your career, a shot at redemption can be just around the corner.
For Jannik Sinner, that chance came just 35 days after he let a two-sets-to-love lead and three match points slip in a French Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz.
The protagonists of tennis' latest favourite rivalry reunited in the Wimbledon final on Sunday and this time Sinner didn't flinch.
He didn't when Alcaraz turned a 2-4 deficit into a 6-4 lead in the opening set. And he didn't when he faced two break points while serving at 4-3 in the fourth. He just never let up.
Sinner had his shot at redemption and he grabbed it with both hands, beating Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to win his fourth Grand Slam and first at Wimbledon.
The final was a Sinner masterclass, but not just in tennis terms. It was a masterclass in moving on; a masterclass in mental gymnastics; and ultimately a masterclass in acceptance.
'This [bouncing back from the French Open loss], I think, is the part I'm the proudest of because it really has not been easy. I always tried to be honest with me and had the self-talk too, you know, what if, what if? I always tried to accept it, in a way,' Sinner said on Sunday.
'Things can happen. I believe if you lose a Grand Slam final that way, it's much better like this than someone kills you, you know, that you make two games. Then after you keep going, keep pushing.
'I did a lot of intensity in every practice because I felt like I could play very good. That's why I also said after Roland Garros that it's not the time to put me down, because another Grand Slam is coming up, and I did great here.'
The way Darren Cahill – one of Sinner's two coaches – put it, Sinner really 'needed that win' on Sunday, for multiple reasons.
It wasn't just to rebound from the loss in Paris.
As one half of one of the most exciting rivalries in sport today, Sinner entered the Wimbledon final on the back of five consecutive defeats to Alcaraz, who was leading their head-to-head 8-4.
The Italian finally stopped the bleeding on a surface Alcaraz has been dominating since 2023.
The fear of this possibly becoming a lopsided rivalry has quickly subsided, and the ghosts of French Open past have been vanquished.
A rematch at the US Open can't come soon enough.
A timely reminder from Swiatek
Redemption was a recurring theme at Wimbledon this past fortnight, as Iga Swiatek ended a 13-month title drought to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish for the first time in her career.
Now a six-time major champion at just 24 years of age, Swiatek is the youngest player since Serena Williams in 2002 to win women's singles Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces.
By her own incredibly high standards, Swiatek had been having a rough season so far and was seeded an unfamiliar No 8 at Wimbledon – her lowest seeding at a slam since 2021.
When she went trophyless through the clay season – which is typically her most fruitful stretch of the year – people started to doubt her. And given her lack of belief on grass, not many expected Swiatek to shine in south-west London.
But a solid training block in Mallorca, and a maiden grass-court final appearance in Bad Homburg on the eve of the Championships, helped Swiatek quash her own doubts and she secured the Wimbledon crown in ruthless fashion, beating Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in a 57-minute final.
Watching Swiatek suffocate her opponent in the final felt very familiar. This is the player who spent 125 weeks as the world No 1, who won Roland Garros as an unseeded teenager, then won three more, and the one who owns 23 titles, including the WTA Finals and 10 WTA 1000s.
Watching her dominate on her least favourite surface to win Wimbledon was a clear message to all her doubters.
'For sure the past months, how the media sometimes described me, and I got to say unfortunately Polish media, how they treated me and my team, it wasn't really pleasant,' said Swiatek on Saturday.
'I hope they will just leave me alone and let me do my job because obviously you can see that we know what we are doing, and I have the best people around me. I have already proved a lot. I know people want more and more, but it's my own process and my own life and my own career.
'Hopefully I'm going to have a freedom from them, as well, to let me do my job the way I want it.'
Solid perspective from Alcaraz
There is very little Alcaraz can be mad about as he walks away from Wimbledon.
Yes, he could have served better in the final and yes, his 24-match winning streak for the season, 20-match winning streak at Wimbledon, and undefeated 5-0 run in major finals all came to an end.
But on the other hand, he was on a 24-match winning streak for the season, and was on a 20-match winning streak at Wimbledon, and was on an undefeated 5-0 run in major finals. See what I did there?
Putting together such numbers at 22 is no mean feat and the fact that he was one match away from becoming just the second man in the Open Era behind Bjorn Borg to pull off the Channel Slam (winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season) in consecutive years is nothing short of impressive.
It's good that he, himself, sees it that way too.
'It's always a bad feeling losing matches. I think it's a little bit even worse when you lose in a final. But overall, I'm just really proud about everything I've done, the last four weeks on grass here in London,' said the Spaniard.
'I just leave Wimbledon, I just left the court with the head really, really, really high because that I just did everything that I could today. Just I played against someone who played an unbelievable game.'
Inspirational run from Anisimova, despite tough ending
There's no sugar coating it, losing 6-0, 6-0 in a major final must feel awful. But to say that Anisimova's Wimbledon campaign this year was anything short of inspirational would be doing her a massive disservice.
Two years ago, Anisimova was on a self-imposed break from tennis due to burnout and mental health concerns. She wasn't feeling good and took the brave decision to walk away, not knowing when she'd be back.
The former teen prodigy – she reached the French Open semi-finals at 17 – ended up taking eight months off and returned to the tour last season looking to resurrect her career.
Barely a year into her return, she captured a maiden WTA 1000 title in Doha and five months later, she ousted the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka to become a Grand Slam finalist.
'I think it goes to show that it is possible. I think that's a really special message that I think I've been able to show because when I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again if you take so much time away from the game,' said Anisimova after reaching the final.
'That was a little hard to digest because I did want to come back and still achieve a lot and win a Grand Slam one day. Just me being able to prove that you can get back to the top if you prioritise yourself. So that's been incredibly special to me. It means a lot.'
Djokovic grappling with new reality
Three majors, three semi-final appearances for the 38-year-old Novak Djokovic in 2025. As he likes to say: 'Not too bad.'
But that doesn't paint the full picture.
At the Australian Open, Djokovic knocked out Alcaraz in the quarters but not before sustaining a leg injury that forced him to retire while down a set in the next round against Alexander Zverev.
At the French Open, the Serb lost in straight sets to Sinner, and at Wimbledon, he fell to the Italian again, in straight sets, and was struggling to move due to a leg problem he picked up in the previous round.
For a 24-time major champion bidding for an all-time record-extending 25th, the outlook for winning another Grand Slam title is not looking good.
He gave a brutally honest assessment of his situation on Friday.
'I don't think it's bad fortune. It's just age, the wear and tear of the body. As much as I'm taking care of it, the reality hits me right now, last year and a half, like never before, to be honest,' said the seven-time Wimbledon winner.
'It's tough for me to accept that because I feel like when I'm fresh, when I'm fit, I can still play really good tennis. I've proven that this year.
'But yeah, I guess playing best-of-five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. The longer the tournament goes, the worse the condition gets. I reach the final stages, I reached the semis of every slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz.
'These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I'm going into the match with tank half empty. It's just not possible to win a match like that.'
Time to embrace upsets
There was a sense of panic when 23 of the 64 seeds at Wimbledon – 13 men and 10 women – lost in the opening round at the Championships, and a record 36 seeds in total were eliminated before round three.
It all sounded so chaotic at the time. Yet by tournament's end, we got a semi-final line-up that featured two major champions, a Grand Slam semi-finalist and an Olympic gold medallist on the women's side, and four top-six seeds on the men's side.
Along the way, we got to see stories like that of Zeynep Sonmez, who became the first Turkish player in history to reach the third round at a Grand Slam, or of Nicolas Jarry, who made his way to the fourth round while battling vestibular neuritis, an inner ear condition that causes vertigo and is affecting his balance and vision.
A friend frequently reminds me that the coolest thing about tennis is that any given day can be the best day of a player's life, and we get to witness it.
Upsets shouldn't mean chaos. They are an inevitable part of a sport that pits two athletes against one another in varying conditions, facing pressure, an audience, and the elements, along with a whole set of challenges we know nothing about unfolding behind-the-scenes.
Whether you call it chaos or anything else, it's time to embrace it because it'll keep on happening.