Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz after their Wimbledon final
When the dust settles on Carlos Alcaraz’s first defeat at Wimbledon since 2022, he will find some silver linings amid his disappointment.
Jannik Sinner was a worthy winner of the latest meeting between the ‘Big 2’ in men’s tennis and after Alcaraz flirted with defeat in the compelling French Open final last month as he fended off three match points before fighting back to claim a famous victory, he can have few complaints after his loss on Centre Court.
To beat this fearsome version of Sinner, any player needs to be at their very best and on this occasion, Alcaraz simply ran out of magic.
The big reason why he was constantly under so much pressure in this match was his faltering first serve, which continued to miss its mark and his overall first serve percentage of just 53 was never going to be good enough to beat Sinner.
He only won 51 per-cent of his second service points and as he was forced to deliver so many of those due to his failure to land his opening serve, Sinner had the opening he needed to claim his first Wimbledon title.
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In truth, Sinner was not at his best for long periods of this contest and looked nervous at times, especially when he surrendered his serve at he end of the first set.
Yet Alcaraz’s dips in focus and form continued to give him the belief he needed to get over the line, with Alcaraz’s increasingly desperate looks up to his box evidence of his mental turmoil during this match.
He may well be a better grass court player than Sinner, but his serve needs to function with more consistency than it did in this match and this is the obvious are the young Spaniard will work on as he looks to bounce back from this defeat.
At the age of 22, Alcaraz is still a player in the development phase of his career and while he had most of the support of the Centre Court crowd against Sinner, that was not enough to carry him when his levels of play dropped.
Sinner’s first serve percentage of 62 was not all it could have been, but he did win a more impressive 60 per-cent of his second serve points and that was the big difference between these two champions.
“A couple of years ago, we were looking at Jannik Sinner as a hard court specialist,” former British No 1 Tim Henman told the BBC.
“Then we saw how he played in Paris, getting so close to the title there and he is always going to feel Alcaraz stole that from him.
“Now he has stepped up and beaten his biggest rival in a Grand Slam final and it’s a great effort. Sinner has developed his game and his movement in and out of corners is so impressive.
“Sinner was able to be more offensive and take the attack to Alcaraz and I’m sure we are going to see these two in more Grand Slam finals.
“We can analyse Alcaraz’s shot selection. Did he lose concentration, but, for me, the credit all goes to Jannik Sinner.”
Alcaraz will now turn his attention to the build-up to the US Open and if the rough edges around his powerful serve can be filed down by the time he gets to New York, he will fancy his chances of winning a second title at Flushing Meadows.
For now, Sinner is in the ascendancy in this thrilling rivalry, but this story is only just getting started.
