Jannik Sinner continued his dominance over men’s tennis as he beat Alexander Zverev in the final at Wimbledon.
Having lost the first set, Sinner won 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court to claim his second title in as many years at the All England Club.
‘We both started off very well, serving very fast. Me and Sascha gave everything we have. There is no better place to play tennis. You can feel the nerves on the Sunday morning, I never take for granted playing in front of very special people (royal box) the whole fortnight.
‘The crowd were incredible to me the whole fortnight and you gave me the best feeling a tennis player can feel.’
The Italian, 24, who did not have rival Carlos Alcaraz to contend with due to injury, breezed to victory in a little under four hours to become just the 10th man to retain the title in the Open era.
After the game, Zverev joked: ‘First of all, Jannik, I don’t really like you any more! I lost to you nine times in a row.
Jannik Sinner has won the men’s singles at Wimbledon for a second consecutive year
The top seed and world No1 beat Alexander Zverev 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court
Zverev (right) thanked the crowd for their support as he joked he no longer likes his opponent
The Princess of Wales was on hand to present the trophy aftrer watching the final from the Royal Box
‘But he showed once again why he is the best player in the world. It was great to share the Centre Court with you on finals weekend. A great honour to be here. It didn’t go my way but congratulations to you first of all.
‘Also in relation to Jannik’s team, who have been with him for many years now. You are number one now but you were outside the top 10 when you started and you are all the way to being Grand Slam champions and world No1. It is a team effort, Jannik will be first to admit it, so congratulations to you as well.
‘To my team, we had pretty good two months I would say, even though we lost this final. We had an amazing two months and we came into Wimbledon having never reached the quarter-final, and we reached a first final. At 29, this is the first time I believed I could win this trophy, so thank you to you guys as well.
‘I would like to thank the crowd for these two amazing weeks. Every time I played the court was full, I never felt support like that at Wimbledon before and you are a big reason I made it to the final, so thank you for that.’
Sinner then took to the mic and added: ‘It feels amazing. I want to start with Sascha. One of your main goals was winning a Grand Slam and you made it happen in Paris, today you were so so close I’m sure if you play like this you’ll have one of these (trophies at home as well).
‘I know another goal of yours is to become No1 in the world, you are very close so we have to be very careful now!
‘We both started off very well, serving very fast. Me and Sascha gave everything we have. There is no better place to play tennis. You can feel the nerves on the Sunday morning, I never take for granted playing in front of very special people (royal box) the whole fortnight.
‘The crowd were incredible to me the whole fortnight and you gave me the best feeling a tennis player can feel.’
More to follow.
