Jannik Sinner has claimed back-to-back titles, with a dominant victory over Alexander Zverev in 3 sets. Sinner never faced a break point all match, and despite Zverev almost squeezing out the 2nd set, the result was never really in doubt, as Sinner asserted his dominance over the tour yet again.
Here is what the players had to say post-match.
The Runner-Up: Alexander Zverev
Alexander Zverev was understandably downcast after his straight sets loss.
“I’m doing everything I can. I’m working as hard as I ever did. I think I’m doing all the right things off-court. I think I’m practicing the right things, but I lost in straight sets today. I mean, those are facts. That is a fact. I lost to Jannik in straight sets today.
I mean, I don’t want to end my career as the best player of all time to never win a Grand Slam, that’s for sure. I’ll keep doing everything I can to lift one of those trophies.”
He was also honest in appraisal of where he currently sits compared to Sinner.
“From the back of the court, completely outplayed me. As I said, I’m serving better than him, but that’s it. He does everything else better than me. He moves better than me. He hits his forehand better than me. He hits his backhand better than me. He returns better than me. He volleys better than me.
At the end of the day, tennis has five or six massive shots, like massive factors, and he does four or five of them better than me. That’s the reason why he won. He deserved to win today.”
During Zverev’s runner-up speech, a woman in the crowd interrupted, bringing attention back on to Zverev’s domestic violence charges. However, he was in no mood to re-open that topic.
“I believe there are no more accusations. There haven’t been for, what, 9 months now. Good for her. I think she was the only one in the stadium who believed anything in that moment. If that’s the case, good for her.
I think I’ve done everything I can, and I’m not about to open that subject again.”
The 2nd set was tight, and a horrible net-cord against Zverev potentially decided the toe-break. While that probably didn’t decide the whole match, Zverev admitted it could’ve made a difference.
“I felt like I could win the second set. I felt like that was a massive point. I think whoever wins that set, kind of can get a little bit of momentum. Being down two sets to love, especially then his confidence goes up, mine goes down. It’s a long way back then against someone like Jannik.
If it’s 1 set all, yeah, maybe I have a chance. But 2 sets to love… I didn’t stop fighting. I didn’t stop believing. Then in the 3rd set I thought he outplayed me more than in the other sets.”
Zverev also spoke about the moment Sinner consoled him during the trophy ceremony.
“I was quite down. I was quite emotional also in that stage. I think he saw that. He said that I will definitely lift one of those trophies in my career. I’m too good not to. That’s his words.
I really thought I had a very good chance because I was feeling good. I was feeling the ball quite well. I was feeling like I can compete. So it was just a difficult moment for me….because there’s nothing more I want than to be able to hold one of those trophies in my hands.”
To read what the Women’s finalists had to say, please click here.
The Champion: Jannik Sinner:
On the flip-side, it was all smiles for Sinner.
“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. 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.”
Sinner discussed the difference in winning the title for a 2nd time, compared to the 1st.
“Of course, you have maybe this little extra pressure and attention on your side, which you have to handle. 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.”
In his press conference, Zverev spoke about the similarities with Sinner and Djokovic, and Sinner admitted it to some extent.
“Game style-wise I looked up to him, trying to understand what he’s doing, how he handles the pressure moments, and important moments.
I still believe we are different as players because everyone is different, but for sure we have similarities. The similarities are having a quite clean ball striking from the baseline, having a good movement, understanding a little bit where your opponent plays the ball.”
With plenty of distractions off-court over the last few months, Sinner talked about his pride at being able to handle everything, while still playing extraordinary tennis.
“Very proud. It’s actually tough to describe. Many, many things happen off the court, what you maybe don’t know. When I go on the court, even if sometimes it’s very difficult to block these kind of things, I have the team and people who are close to me who trust me. That for me is even more important because I can talk with them, very openly with them. That’s it.”
While he’s almost unstoppable on the hard courts, Sinner is determined to be seen as an all-court player.
“You have to be a complete player, not only one surface, but on also the other two.
Of course, on hard court I feel more comfortable, no? I think that we can see. But I take it as positive because on the other surfaces I still have to improve, I have to see how it works.
I’m going to put a lot of energy in that, trying to find the right ways, and hopefully to go far also in the other Grand Slams who are not played on hard court. Then we see.”
We will see…
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