The best

Both massive favorites in their semi-finals, which they won 3 sets to 0, we still had a few doubts at the start of the tournament (Jannik looking a bit less dominant and Zverev not being on his best surface). But in the end, we really do have the two best players, by far, facing off here!

I'll start with Z. Best-ever version of the German on grass. His serving stats are incredible (https://x.com/Tennis_Metrics/status/2075603518808007110?s=20). He’s more aggressive than ever (great winners / UEs ratio, and quite a few successful net approaches). And finally, regardless of what he says, he’s a different man since his win at Roland. Now, I find he’s got this brilliant mix of accumulated confidence and professionalism.

As for Sinner, he’s bounced back yet again. What stands out for me is his MONSTROUS ability to show up every single time after a tough blow. It took him a bit of time at Wim to get back to his best level. But he was never really in danger, and when he had to raise his level in the semi, he did it without any problem.

As for today’s final, I was thinking, after watching Zverev, that this match was going to be pretty balanced. And then I saw Sinner, and I was even more blown away by his performance.

Sinner vs Zverev, it’s 9–0 over their last 9 matches, with only two sets dropped 🤣. A demolition. I’d even say that in the last six matches, Zverev played them without really believing, and got a thrashing every time. With his new status, he’ll want to test and push his limits. We saw with Djoko that against a Sinner at this level, you really can’t afford to make mistakes: you have to try to hurt him from the very first shot. If you let him take control, you’re done. With his new ability to attack, combined with his timeless ease in covering the court from the back, Zverev, in my view, has the tools to offer some real resistance. But when you look at Jannik’s returning quality against Djoko, I can’t help but think it’s going to be very tough for Z. At this level, you need to hit a service winner and a serve +1 winner more or less to guarantee yourself at least 2 points on average on your service games. If Jannik manages to return well, and he proved he was a beast in that area against Djoko, then he could lower that average number of free points on serve to, let’s say, 1.8. And that changes everything...