Mumbai: A fortnight into the Wimbledon Championships, the fabled grass of Centre Court had withered away. What was left was a faint reminder of what the pristine green would have looked like, and a baseline that now resembled a dustbowl.
Indeed, there was a lot of dust flying on a sunny yet windy Sunday evening in London. That suited Jannik Sinner just fine.
The 24-year-old Italian was the defending champion, but he came to the tournament without playing a single grass court event. What he carried with him was the experience of 18 wins on clay courts this year.
And in the men’s singles final against second seed Alexander Zverev, Sinner slipped and slid his way to a fifth Grand Slam title.
This was his second triumph at Wimbledon, and he became only the eighth man in the Open Era to win the Championships without playing a tune-up event. The world No.1 came from behind to beat Zverev 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4 in 3 hours and 46 minutes.
Going into the match, he had a dominant 10-4 record over Zverev, winning their last nine matches. But this was the first time they were playing on grass. And this was the first time Zverev was coming into a Major as a Grand Slam champion, having won the French Open title last month.
This was going to be a tough battle between two in-form opponents. Sinner got to the final by playing himself into form after stuttering in his opener against Miomir Kecmanovic (he had to come from 2-1 down to win in five sets). Those were the only two sets he lost in his solid run to the final that included a statement win over seven-time winner Novak Djokovic in the semi-final.
Zverev, 29, too was coming into the summit clash in decent form, dropping two sets along the way.
And there was nothing much separating them in the early exchanges.
There were no breaks of serve to show in the first set, although Sinner did manage to get the only break point opportunity. The Italian, however, was not playing at his best throughout the set.
The ball-striking ability was there, but not as frequent and consistent – Zverev saved the break point more because of a shanked forehand from Sinner rather than from the German pushing his opponent into a difficult position.
Sinner was struggling to get the first serves in, managing a low 65 percent compared to Zverev’s 74, which meant he did not have as much of a foot-in in the rallies.
Eventually it came down to that one mini-break at 7-8 in the tie-break that decided the opening set. This ended Zverev’s losing run of 14 consecutive sets to Sinner.
The first serve percentage was even worse in the second set, with Sinner managing only 55 percent (21 of 38 serves). But his quality in the rallies improved. He was finding the sweet spot on the racquet more often while Zverev continued to hold onto his own serve.
Once again, the set would be decided in a tiebreak. But that’s when Sinner started to hit bigger and better. He raced to a 4-0 lead, almost pulled off a miraculous lob on the run which was long by a mere few millimeters, and though there was an unforced error on his own serve, Sinner won the tiebreak 7-2 to level the match.
With a spring in his step, Sinner showed more energy and rhythm on his serve. The serve percentage went up to 72 – it would have been higher, had it not been for a shaky game at 3-3.
The Italian started off with a double fault and an error. And after two hours and 42 minutes of play on Centre Court, Zverev had a first break point. Sinner replied with a devious drop shot. The German took a step forward to chase, but slipped and landed heavily on his right knee.
It took a toll, as Zverev’s movement looked a tad off, and his ball toss had dropped by three centimetres. Those small margins were all Sinner needed to get the break, and then close out the set at love – with an ace down the T.
The dynamics and body language changed thereon. Sinner looked much more assured of his shots, though remaining stoic as usual – even when down 0-30 in his first two service games. Zverev was irate and was not hitting into the angles as frequently as he was earlier.
The telling break of serve came in the seventh game. Zverev managed to come back to deuce after being down 15-40, but Sinner seized his moment to go in front 4-3. He consolidated the break with a love hold to go up 5-3.
And finally, forehand hammered down the line winner, Sinner had won his first Grand Slam of the season.