Wimbledon finals aren't supposed to be coin flips anymore in the men's game, but this one was. Sinner and Zverev traded haymakers from the opening set, and Barstool's tennis-pilled crowd noticed immediately that this wasn't going to be a normal Sunday stroll for the defending champ.
Razor tight 1st set followed by a perfect serving tiebreak. Zverev aggression pays off with the winner. What a start
Zverev came out swinging and it worked early. He took the opening set in a tiebreak, playing with the kind of aggression that had carried him to his first career major just weeks earlier at Roland Garros. For a guy chasing a first Wimbledon title and trying to do something no man had done in the Open Era -- win his maiden major and then follow it up at the very next Grand Slam -- it was the start he needed.
But Sinner has made a habit of not folding, and he answered right back. He leveled the match with a tiebreak of his own, and by that point the tennis world -- not just the diehards -- was locked in.
Tennis is an underrated watch. Sinner & Zverev is incredible right now..
From there it turned into a genuine slugfest, with both guys trading top-tier tennis for hours on Centre Court. Somewhere around the 2.5-hour mark, the match had built into something more than a normal final -- two of the sport's best players just refusing to give an inch, with the title on the line and a golden opportunity for Zverev to make Slam history sitting right there.
We're now over 2.5 hours of a great Wimbledon Finals match between Sinner and Zverev. Level is at an extreme high, great for the sport. Wimbledon main account highlights tweeted: 0 SportsCenter account: 1 ESPN account: 1 Meanwhile if you post a highlight it'll get taken down..
That gripe about ESPN and Wimbledon's own account sitting on highlights while a legendary match played out says something about how big this one felt in real time -- and about the eternal tension between leagues protecting their broadcast rights and fans just wanting to see the good stuff. J.Lo showing up in a massive hat got more airtime than the tennis itself for a stretch, which is its own kind of Wimbledon tradition.
In the end, class won out. Sinner closed it out to defend his title, denying Zverev the immediate follow-up major he was chasing and running his personal winning streak against the German to 10 matches in a row. It's Sinner's 5th career Grand Slam trophy and makes him the 10th man ever to successfully defend a Wimbledon singles title -- rarefied company on the sport's biggest stage.
Great showing from Jannik, well deserved title Sport needs Carlos back for these finals. Praying it's the US Open
Zverev walks away from his first career Grand Slam final having pushed the best player in the world to 4 sets and shown he belongs in these moments going forward. Sinner walks away with the trophy, the win streak intact, and a season that had started rocky in Melbourne and Paris now validated by the sport's most famous lawn. Now it's about whether Carlos Alcaraz gets back into the title mix -- because as good as this final was, men's tennis is at its best when its two biggest stars are both playing for the trophy.