Alexander Zverev is a win away from a Wimbledon title with which he would etch his name into the tennis history books.
The 29-year-old German will take on Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s championship match at the grass major, just five weeks after he claimed his first Grand Slam trophy at Roland Garros. Should Zverev prevail on The All England Club grass, he will become the first man in the Open Era to win his second major title in the Grand Slam tournament immediately following his first.
Zverev is just the third player in the Open Era (since 1968) to even reach the final in the Grand Slam event following his first major win. The first was Andy Murray, who won his first major crown at the 2012 US Open (d. Djokovic) and then reached the final at the 2013 Australian Open (l. to Djokovic).
In 2021, Daniil Medvedev earned his first Grand Slam triumph at the US Open (d. Djokovic) and then led Rafael Nadal by two sets in the 2022 Australian Open final, before the Spaniard rallied to a memorable victory in Melbourne.
Nadal himself struggled to back up his first major victory, which came at Roland Garros in 2005. Just more than three weeks later at Wimbledon, the Spaniard was upset by his fellow lefty Gilles Muller in the second round at the grass major.
By comparison, Nadal’s fellow legendary ‘Big Three’ members Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic fared better in their attempts to turn their first major win into back-to-back Slam triumphs, but neither was able to push on as far as Murray, Medvedev or Zverev.
Federer won Wimbledon in 2003 and then reached the fourth round at that year’s US Open, where he fell to David Nalbandian. After his 2008 Australian Open triumph, Djokovic subsequently reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, but was undone by his great Lexus ATP Head2Head rival Nadal.
Zverev can therefore go where no man has before on Sunday at Wimbledon, where he will enter Sunday’s final on a nine-match losing streak against Sinner. Should the German find a way to reverse his fortunes against the Italian and triumph, he will also become just the seventh man in the Open Era to win the ‘Channel Slam’ (winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year), joining Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on that elite list.
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