Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev will step on court Sunday for the Wimbledon championship match each chasing a statement victory on the lawns of The All England Club.
The No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner is aiming to get back to title-winning ways after a tough 2026 — by his own markedly high standards at least — at Grand Slam level. Meanwhile Zverev, feeling the flow after finally breaking his major trophy duck last month at Roland Garros, bids to snap his nine-match losing streak against Sinner and become the first man in the Open Era to back up his maiden major trophy with a second at the very next Grand Slam event.
So what hope for Zverev against a player who has had his number for the best part of two years? For starters, the German will hope that a new surface offers him a reset in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry: Sinner and Zverev have never contested a tour-level match on grass. Then there is the fact that, for the first time, he will step on court to take on the Italian with all the confidence of a major champion.
“I think there's two things to it,” Zverev said after ending home wild card Arthur Fery's fairytale run at SW19 to book his final spot and extend his winning streak at majors to 11 matches. “I think, yes, one thing, for sure, 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. The second thing, I feel like I worked on my game a lot. I feel like my game has improved. Sometimes in sports it's as simple as that.”
Sinner is certainly someone who recognises the confidence that positive results can bring. Earlier this season, the Italian enjoyed a 30-match winning streak, the longest of his career, winning five consecutive ATP Masters 1000 titles in the process. However, that run came in between disappointments at the Australian Open, where he lost out to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, and at Roland Garros, where he fell from two sets up to Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Yet the four-time Grand Slam titlist Sinner is not likely to be thinking about those setbacks come Sunday. The 24-year-old began his Wimbledon campaign with a scratchy five-set win against Miomir Kecmanovic, but has not dropped a set since and was imperious in dispatching seven-time champion Djokovic in the semi-finals.
“When you start to win a lot of matches and don't lose a lot, it shows that he is playing incredible tennis,” Sinner, speaking after his straight-sets triumph against Djokovic, said of Zverev. “I saw a little bit in the two weeks, but not so much. I saw the semis because he was playing before me, so I was watching. He is very, very aggressive at the moment.
“His confidence is good. He's very relaxed on court at the moment, so this is good. So let's see. I'm happy to face him. I try to do the best I can, and then we see how it goes.”
The 6-foot-6 Zverev had never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon until this year, a somewhat surprising statistic given the German’s renowned booming first serve that is well suited to the fast-and-low-bouncing grass. Sinner, who himself delivered a near-flawless serving display against Djokovic — he won 88 per cent (45/51) of points behind his first serve against the Serbian — is expecting something different from facing Zverev on grass.
“I mean, less exchanges, less rhythm,” Sinner said when asked about how the final might play out compared to the pair’s previous meetings. “This we know because of the surface being that fast. Being also quite warm, it's going to be good for big server.
"He is definitely a big server… Whatever happened in the past between me and him, it happened. In between, he won a Grand Slam in Paris, which gave him a lot of confidence. We can see the level he's producing here. We all hope for a good match.”
With Zverev already guaranteed to replace Carlos Alcaraz as World No. 2 on Monday, the Wimbledon final against Sinner represents a chance for him to make further inroads into the Sinner-Alcaraz duopoly at the top of men’s tennis. Even with everything he has achieved in the past couple of months, the 29-year-old German is only focused on trying to end Sunday as just the seventh man in the Open Era to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year.
“For me, I stay focused. I stay hungry. I want more,” Zverev said. “I want to continue playing at the best level and continue winning. I hope I'm able to do that, and again on Sunday I have another big chance.”
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