Alexander Zverev dropped the ultimate praise on Jannik Sinner following their Australian Open final clash, comparing the Italian to prime Novak Djokovic.
Bidding to win his first Grand Slam, the 27-year-old German fell short after the No. 1 seed handed him a 6-3 7-6 (4) 6-3 loss.
During the match, the world No. 2 fired 12 aces, 25 winners but also made 43 unforced errors.
Later in his presser, Zverev said that playing against this version of Sinner reminds him of Djokovic because he consistently feels that he has to go for deep balls and hit certain spots, while the rival across the net simply isn’t giving anything for free.
Since the start of 2024, the 23-year-old Italian has won three of the last five Grand Slams.
Zverev: Sinner is very, very similar to Djokovic
“He’s very, very similar to Novak when he was at his best. They barely miss, like barely miss. They make you think like you have to overhit all the time to have a chance in a rally against them,” the German explained.
“It’s very, very difficult to win a point from the back of the court against them, against Novak and him. Move obviously tremendous. They’re constantly on the baseline.
“They don’t give you any space. They don’t give you any time. Yeah, I mean, just right now too good for me. Again, I’ll do everything I can to be able to compete with them and to lift the trophy, but today was nowhere near good enough.”
After beating Sinner at the 2023 US Open, the world No. 2 improved to a 4-1 record against the Italian.
But since then, he has lost in each of their last two meetings.
Meanwhile, Zverev now owns a 0-3 record in his Grand Slam finals after also losing to Dominic Thiem in the 2020 US Open and to Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s French Open final.
Tennis World USA