ATP Tour

Sinner settles in to sink Zverev and reclaim Vienna crown

Jannik Sinner cut through cramp to reassert his indoor dominance Sunday at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The top seed at the ATP 500 rallied past Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to recapture the title at an event where he previously triumphed in 2023. Sinner dug deep to overcome an impressive start from Zverev and also shook off physical struggles in the first and third sets to cap a two-hour, 29-minute victory and seal his 21st tour-level crown.

Vienna Virtuoso 🎻🏆@janniksin defeats Zverev 3-6 6-3 7-5 to claim his second @ErsteBankOpen crown.#ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/AJEtZ74M7l

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 26, 2025

“It feels amazing,” said Sinner, who is now on a 21-match winning streak on indoor hard courts. “It was such a difficult start in this final for me. I went a break down, had some chances in the first set but couldn’t use them. He was serving very well, but I just tried to stick there mentally and play my best tennis when it came.

“The third set was a bit of a rollercoaster, but I was feeling the ball very well at times, so I tried to push and I’m very happy of course to win another title. It’s very special.”

Zverev struck the ball cleanly off both wings in the early stages and had already earned the opening break in the fourth game when Sinner began to move gingerly and limp in between points, evoking memories of the Italian’s retirement due to cramp in Shanghai earlier this month. Zverev, himself a former champion in Vienna (2021), closed out the set, but the World No. 2 Sinner appeared to have soon shaken off his physical issue with a classy second-set display.

However, the Italian then seemingly began to struggle with cramp in his left hamstring during the seventh game of the third set, just as his eighth tour-level meeting with Zverev reached its crescendo. Yet via a combination of drinking pickle juice at changeovers and upping the aggression in his game to shorten the rallies, Sinner continued to pile the pressure on his opponent.

Watch Zverev find fortune, to Sinner's amusement, in Vienna final third set:

The Italian clinched a decisive break for 6-5 in the third set after winning a lung-busting baseline exchange when Zverev pushed a backhand long. He soon served out to clinch his fourth title of the season, level his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Zverev at 4-4, and join Roger Federer and Andy Murray as ATP No. 1 Club members to have triumphed twice in Vienna.

“It was very difficult of course,” said Sinner of his third-set physical struggle. “The most important thing was to not give up and try to stay there. Try to see what the situation was. I just tried to make the right choices at the right time. I think that was the key today. Serving well and saving energy in my service games was important too.”

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Sinner produced some scintillating tennis across his run in Austria, where he did not drop a set prior to the final. Now 48-6 for the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, the 24-year-old will be full of confidence as he prepares to end his 2025 season at the Rolex Paris Masters and the Nitto ATP Finals.

Zverev, who on Friday joined Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic in qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, was chasing his first win against a Top 5 rival in 2025. The German will now head to Paris third in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, having leapfrogged Djokovic with his Vienna run.