I have not been able to follow very much of this year’s Australian Open tennis due to conflicts with my first sporting love, cricket, but this morning UK time I was able to tune in to the very last match of the tournament, the final of the men’s singles.
A POOR MATCH
The last two contestants to take to the Rod Laver arena at this year’s Australian Open were Jannik Sinner, world number one, but facing a substantial drugs ban, and Alexander Zverev, world number two. Zverev was in his third grand slam final, having lost both the previous two, while Sinner is a multiple grand slam winner, and came into the match as defending champion of this tournament. Yesterday in the women’s singles Madison Keys at the age of 29, and seven and a half years after a horror loss to Sloane Stephens in that year’s US Open final won the title, beating Aryna Sabalenka, world number one and winner of the previous two titles in Melbourne. The match was close early on but the decisive momentum shift happened in games eight and nine. The eighth game of the match, with Zverev serving at 3-4 down and no one yet having broken, was a very long one, finally ending when Zverev misjudged an attempt to get into the net, opening himself up to a passing shot which Sinner duly made. Game nine thus saw Sinner serving for the first set, and he was clinically efficient, getting through it very fast and completely mercilessly.
The second set went to a tie break, and although Zverev secured the first mini-break he gave it right back, and in the end Sinner was an easy winner, seven points to four.
The third set was short, the closest Sinner coming to a worrying moment at any stage thereof being when serving for the title at 5-3, 30-30. The last two points were confidently played by Sinner. The final scoreline was 6-3, 7-6, 6-3, a straight sets win for the Italian world number one. It was in truth even more one-sided than the score suggests – not only did Zverev not break the Sinner serve all match, he never even had a break point. Sinner was hardly at the top of his form, which tells you just how bad Zverev was in this match.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
aspiblog 