Coming back to that men’s final, Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev were both serving at a very high level. There were only three break points in the entire match, which made it a psychological battle, based around which of them could handle the pressure. Even though Zverev came out on the wrong side, I still felt it was the best I’ve seen him play on a grass court. He really gave Sinner a run for his money, producing the better tennis for a set and a half.
The problem was that Sinner has such incredible defensive qualities, straight from the mould established by Novak Djokovic. He has a champion’s mentality, which means that even when he isn’t playing his best, he doesn’t give you anything easy. There are no presents when you’re facing Sinner.
Zverev was perhaps only a couple of points away from snatching that second set and establishing a match-winning position. But when Sinner opened a lead in the second-set tie-break, that was when the momentum changed. In the third set, there was more shadow on the court. The temperature dropped and the ball wasn’t flying as quickly, which played in Sinner’s favour because he is so difficult to break down.
When you consider that Zverev had lost his last nine matches against Sinner, and the last six in straight sets, this was a much closer battle. He also maybe tweaked his knee a little bit when he slipped and fell on the one break-point chance that he had in the entire match. He was broken in the next service game, which probably put paid to his chances, when you consider how hard he was finding it to put pressure on Sinner’s serve.