At the end, Jannik Sinner lofted his arms aloft after a victory which must have felt like some time coming. The 23-year-old, in his typical unostentatious manner, crouched down in reflection before heading to his euphoric team in the east stand. Unlike the most devastating of defeats five weeks ago on the red brick of Roland Garros, when three championship points passed in a flash, the Italian had his crowning moment of the season this Sunday evening in south-west London.
No longer bewitched by his adversary, Sinner claimed his first win over Carlos Alcaraz in six attempts and 20 months. The world No 1 had finally triumphed against his biggest foe. Despite dropping the first set here, the Italian kept his composure, stopped Alcaraz’s three-peat quest and 24-win streak in its tracks and prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Of course, for some, it is a result with a bitter taste. It would be remiss not to mention Sinner’s three-month doping ban earlier this year, suspiciously timed so he did not miss a major. Some argue, therefore, that Sinner should not even be playing this fortnight in SW19. And they may well be right. But the “inadvertent contamination” of an anabolic steroid was seen by most as purely accidental. A costly mistake, but one in which Sinner’s integrity was rightly not questioned.
And so, scalpel-gate or not, Italy has its first Wimbledon champion, male of female. Sinner has his first non-hard court Grand Slam. And tennis has its next generation rivalry, thrust into the present-day, with 23-year-old Sinner the victor in their latest spellbinding duel.
“It’s so special, seeing my parents here, my brother, my whole team, it’s amazing,” Sinner said, on court, after the presentation ceremony.
“I had a very tough loss in Paris. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how you win or lose, you have to understand what you did wrong, try and work on that. That’s what we did, we accepted the loss. This is one of the reasons I’m holding this trophy here.
“I’m very happy I held my nerves, it’s an amazing feeling. I never thought I’d be in this position, this was a dream of mine when I was young, I’m just living my dream.”
Sinner stated beforehand that he wasn’t sure whether a replication of their French Open epic was possible. “We’ll do our best,” he chuckled. Regardless, the sense of anticipation, of expectation, was tangible as the clock ticked past 4:10pm on a sun-drenched Centre Court. A slightly delayed start made the occasion all the more suspenseful; save for a plane overhead, you could hear a pin drop amongst 15,000 captivated onlookers.
Yet that early serenity in the stands was contrasted with the adrenaline-fueled athletes on-court. If a statistic was needed to illustrate this, in just the third game of the match, Alcaraz thumped down the biggest serve of his career at 139mph. He’d later beat it by clocking 140mph.
Sinner drew first blood as Alcaraz went astray with his groundstrokes in the fifth game. It’s not an uncommon sight: the spectacular Spaniard often needs a wake-up call, a dip in quality, to spark into life. And indeed it transpired here. The defending champion kicked supremely into full throttle, reeling off four games in a row with an initial break back – winning a hard-hitting 18-shot really in the process – before a raucous final game of the opener.
Serving to stay in it, the Italian was forced out of his comfort zone, unable to react to Alcaraz’s dazzling variety. A slip at the back of the court from the world No 1 presented a set point chance, which Alcaraz took in remarkable fashion. Sinner was sent out wide and ripped forehand down the line for what, against anyone else on tour, would have been a clean winner. But Alcaraz, incomprehensibly, stretched and scooped a backhand back into the open court, with Sinner nowhere to be seen.
In a fashion he has now trademarked, Alcaraz raised his finger to his ear, forever a showman. Centre Court wasn’t mute anymore. The touchpaper had been lit.
Yet for his brilliance, Alcaraz has a tendency to fluctuate sporadically. The Spaniard was playing catch-up at the start of the second, throwing in a shocker of an opening game, but was evidently making Sinner – usually a cool-headed, methodical monster of a player – double guess his every move.
In fact, it’s highly unusual for the Italian to show emotion, but he did so within an hour here. Hands-on-hips after a routine backhand pass went wide, he then shouted “let’s go!”, in English no less, after saving a break point. He repeated the war cry, after a brief pause for a champagne cork shooting onto court, when holding serve a few games later.
The set then swiftly moved to 5-4, Sinner serving to level the match, when the Italian produced his own range of fireworks. By this point, the exchanges were of an extraordinary nature, and the world No 1 produced four sensational winners to seal the set: a backhand crosscourt winner, repeating the trick a point later, crisply finding the line with a forehand winner before sealing it with a stunning forehand cross-court angle, on-the-run again. Sinner simply stopped, fist raised, in an intense fixation at his coach Darren Cahill in his player box.
This was the Italian remaining all who surveyed that he was also capable of spellbinding artistry on this stage. The conclusions to the first two sets were a perfect snapshot of the stratospheric level required to win the biggest points between these two. As somewhat expected, it was turning into an instant classic.
Best-of-three from here on in, both swatted away chances against their serve with stunning efficiency. Alcaraz saved two break points in his opening game, while Sinner wooed the arena with a tweener volley at the net. On the grandest stage in tennis, it was circus stuff.
Yet much like the second, Sinner edged ahead. Finding his range peerlessly, Sinner carved out break point at 4-3 with a sweetly struck forehand. Alcaraz, having spent nearly five more hours on court this tournament than his opponent, suddenly looked a smidge weary and Sinner sealed the break as the Spaniard slipped out wide.
The Italian held, comfortably, his constant depth overpowering the defending champion, and was a set away from victory. Alcaraz said to his team, in Spanish: “He is playing much better than me.”
Sinner was flying now, grasping control of the rallies, and crisply claimed an early break in the fourth with two razor-sharp backhands down the line. But could Alcaraz, like Paris last month, somehow claw back victory from the jaws of defeat? No sequel on that front.
“Finish him Jannik”, one overzealous punter roared. Sinner saved two break points at 4-3 and soon, a mirror image scenario from Roland Garros was at play. A game from victory, Sinner could see the finish line ahead. With three hours on the clock, he was serving for the title at 5-4. In Paris, he was broken to love. But in London, on match point No 2, a final thunderous serve down the T sealed it.
And Sinner, finally, could put to bed his Alcaraz curse.
