Standing on stage next to Jannik Sinner during the Australian Open’s trophy ceremony, Alexander Zverev believed that a first grand slam title was a world away. “Today he completely outplayed me,” Zverev said after losing his third grand slam final. “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. He’s in a different universe right now to anyone else.”
That was in January 2025. Fast forward to April 2026, and not much had changed. In Madrid, as Sinner and Zverev once again stood side by side during a trophy presentation, the world No 1 appeared to be on another planet; his 6-1, 6-2 victory in just 57 minutes continued his dominant clay-court stretch, and extended his winning run against the German. It was Zverev’s ninth consecutive defeat to the 24-year-old Sinner, and a sixth in a row without winning a set.
Sinner and Zverev arrived at the French Open the following month as the top two seeds but a world apart. Sinner was the biggest pre-tournament favourite at Roland Garros since a prime Rafael Nadal, with Zverev an afterthought.
Sinner and Zverev meet again on Sunday in the Wimbledon final, but after two weeks in Paris, that may have changed everything. Sinner’s dream of completing the career grand slam evaporated in the red dirt as he suffered an unthinkable collapse in his second-round defeat to Juan Manuel Cerundolo, his winning streak grinding to a halt under the intense heat. It cleared the path for Zverev to end his long quest to win a first grand slam title, with the 29-year-old defeating Flavio Cobolli in five sets in the final.
Freed from the burden of being the best player in the world yet to have won a grand slam title, following defeats in his first three major finals, Zverev has returned to Wimbledon transformed. At what was historically his worst grand slam, having failed to advance further than the fourth round in nine previous attempts, Zverev’s shoulders have relaxed, he has stood taller, and he has deployed his powerful game to cruise through the draw. In the semi-finals, he stamped his newfound authority over Arthur Fery, squashing the British wildcard’s fairytale.
At 6ft 6in, Zverev can be imposing, but his struggles to break through at the business end of grand slams have regularly been put down to his tendency to shrink in the most important moments, to back down at the baseline and revert to safer shots. At the Australian Open at the start of the season, Zverev served for a place in the final against Carlos Alcaraz but buckled, though he was adamant afterwards that he was encouraged by his level and the improvements he has made as a player.
”Once you win a major, you know how to do it, and you feel like you can do it again. You have this feeling inside of you,” Zverev said after Friday’s semi-final. “The second thing, I feel like I worked on my game a lot. I feel like my game has improved. When you improve your forehand, when you improve your backhand, when you improve your serve, when you improve your return, you're going to win more matches. It's sometimes as simple as that.”
The question now, though, is whether Zverev can take his progress into a Wimbledon final and challenge the best player in the world. There was a sense after what happened in Paris that Sinner would need some time to recover from the one weakness in his game having been exposed so publicly and painfully. The Italian did not play a warm-up event before Wimbledon and was not convincing as he survived a five-set scare against Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round of his title defence.
While benefitting from a kind draw and not facing a seeded opponent until the semi-finals, Sinner has also grown with each round. He produced a serving masterclass to thrash Novak Djokovic in a “blowout” on Friday, winning 88 per cent of his first-serve points. “I think mentally I knew that I needed to level up. I've done it today,” Sinner said after returning to the final, where he will bid to win his fifth grand slam and first since defeating Alcaraz on Centre Court.
Last year brought the anticipation of Sinner and Alcaraz’s rematch. This may be more of a throwback, a battle between two huge servers who may race through some of their service games. “We saw how aggressive he's playing, serving very big,” Sinner said. “He is a tough player to play against. He was before, but now even more because of this confidence he has. It's going to be very, very tough, very different than all the other matches we have played.”
And Sinner knows exactly how winning a first grand slam title can flip expectations. After losing to Zverev in five sets at the 2023 US Open, Sinner trailed his head to head against the German 4-1. Then, the following January, he became a grand slam champion at the age of 22 by winning his first Australian Open, and has not looked back. Zverev has not beaten Sinner since. He’s not even come close, either. But will those two weeks in Paris prove to be the difference?
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