Top-ranked Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title and the fourth major championship on Sunday, following an overwhelming defeat to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open last month.
Just five weeks after World Nos 1 and 2, he made his second-longest men’s major final at Red Clay of Roland-Garros. Alcaraz overcame a two-set deficit and saved three match points along the way.
The 22-year-old Italian native, Thinner won the US Open last September and defended the Australian Open title in January, playing in the fourth consecutive Grand Slam Finals, but first played at the All England Club. He was the first Italian player to win the Wimbledon Singles title.
Thinner and Alkaraz split the past seven Grand Slam trophies and nine of the past 12. This was the first time the same two men first faced off in the French Open and Wimbledon title match in the same year, as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had done it in 2008, and not in 2008, and so they hadn’t done it in 2008.
Thinner led 4-2 early in the match, but Alcaraz rolled up four consecutive games to take the first set. Second, Thinner broke Alkaraz in the opening game and served the rest of the way. The cork landed at the feet of the sinner.
“No, only here at Wimbledon,” the smiling sinner said at a ceremony on the court when asked if it had ever happened before. “But that’s exactly why I love playing here.”
Thinner fired seven aces after scoring 0 in the opening two sets, beating Alcaraz with a 5-4 lead with a 5-4 lead to win the third set.
Thinner faced two breakpoints while serving 4-3 and 15-40 in the fourth set. However, he settled down and grabbed the next four points to grab there and quickly managed to win.
“I’m trying to try that – at the end of the day, if he breaks you, I want to lose the game I did with the shot,” Sinner spoke with ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez, explaining his thoughts on two breakpoints. “I tried to be as consistent as possible.”
When it was finished, the sinner placed his hands on his white hat. After hugging Alkaraz online, the sinner bowed his head and crouched down in the courtroom, slamming his right palm on the grass.
“I think it’s all the journey from where we started… at the end of the day when we can’t get in, where you don’t know where you’re going,” Thinner told ESPN. “A lot of players who want to win this title, I’m lucky to be one of them… that makes my dream come true.”
The 532-day span between the sinner’s 2024 Australian Open and Wimbledon victory is the second shortest man to win his first four majors after Federer (434 days from Wimbledon in 2003 to the US Open in 2004).
Alcaraz has stepped into Nikko’s Bathing Center Court, defeating the criminal on five consecutive times in a row, as the owner of a career-high 24-game unbeaten run. Alkaraz has won 20 consecutive matches at All England clubs, including a victory over Novak Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals, and his .921 win percentage (35-3) in his tour-level career was the best for any man in an open era.
The last man to defeat Alcaraz at Wimbledon? Sinner, 4th round of 2022.
“It takes so long to win against him,” Sinner said.
The same tape job and white arm sleeves were protecting the right elbow he’s been using since falling into the opening game of his fourth victory with Grigor Dimitrov, the sinner showed no issues just as he hadn’t eliminated 24-time major champion Djokovic in the semi-finals.
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.
