Match Reaction

Sinner on his evolution to the top

Twelve months ago, Jannik Sinner captured his first major at the Australian Open. The Italian went on to climb to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings and lift a further seven tour-level trophies in 2024.

On Sunday, the 23-year-old successfully defended his title in Melbourne, where he defeated Alexander Zverev in the final. But how did Sinner find the experience of returning to a major as the top seed and the man to beat?

“Maybe there was a little extra pressure and attention on your side, which you have to handle. But on the other hand, you know that you can do it because you've done it once. You try to understand whatever it is,” Sinner said in his post-match press conference.

“What I understood this time is every day is different. You have days where you might not feel 100 per cent and then the next match all of a sudden, ‘Okay, I'm into the tournament’. I think I've learned many things throughout this one year, not all about the result, but how I am as a person and how I handle the situations on the court.”

Everything added up to this moment.

This is Jannik's time, and he's only just getting started 👊#ItAllAddsUp pic.twitter.com/Px5AJMnS6u

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 26, 2025

Sinner dropped just two sets en route to the title but faced difficulty against Holger Rune in the fourth round. The Italian was struggling with an illness during the fourth-round match but prevailed before he returned to full health to see off Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals, Ben Shelton in the semis and Zverev in the final.

Sinner holds a 22-4 record in Melbourne and enjoys competing at the hard-court major. The top seed produced some of his best tennis of the fortnight against Zverev, highlighted by his ability to win the second set under pressure.

“It was an amazing performance from my side,” Sinner said. “I felt like I was in the beginning of the match serving really well and trying to get into the zone very fast. It was very high-quality from my side. In the second set, I got a bit lucky in the tie-break, as we saw.

“All things considered, [it was an] amazing run again here in Australia. I'm extremely happy. Sharing this with the team here and family and the people I love, it's amazing.”

Zverev, who was chasing his first major, was full of praise for Sinner in his press conference and compared the Italian to 24-time major champion Djokovic. The Italian was flattered by the German’s comments.

“It's an amazing compliment from Sascha,” Sinner said. “I think everyone is different in a way. Obviously I have some similarities with Novak's game style. I still believe when Novak plays at his best, it's very, very, very tough to beat him.

“But game style-wise I looked up to him, trying to understand what he's doing, how he handles the pressure moments, and important moments. I still believe we are different as players because everyone is different, but for sure we have similarities. The similarities are having a quite clean ball striking from the baseline, having a good movement, understanding a little bit where your opponent plays the ball.”

Djokovic was forced to retire in his semi-final clash against Zverev due to a hamstring injury but Sinner had no such physical issues en route to his 19th tour-level title. The 23-year-old has won 37 of his past 38 matches and praised the work of his coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi in making him the player to beat on Tour.

“He's a very honest, honest person,” Sinner said on Cahill. “To be a good coach with many different players, you have to understand the player and you have to get into the rhythm of the player, what he likes, what he doesn't like. It takes him just some weeks to get into that, and then he's there.

“One thing I really love about him is because he's very, very humble. He fits into the team very, very well. I tried also to make a good result for him here because being Australian, last Grand Slam as a coach.

“But I have to say we talk a lot about Darren, but it's also the Simone part, which is amazing what he's doing. He changed me as a player. He gave me so much confidence that I can do different stuff.”