Sinner conquers Alcaraz for his first Wimbledon title

Published 9:30 am Monday, July 14, 2025

WIMBLEDON, England — The vision of Jannik Sinner covered in sweat and red dust, bleary-eyed and emotionless, will not soon be forgotten by those who watched last month’s epic French Open final matching the current standard-bearers in men’s tennis. Sinner led by two sets and had three championship points against Carlos Alcaraz but lost the trophy anyway. After 5 hours 29 minutes, there was nothing he could do but stare into the void.

That image remains. But Sunday at Wimbledon, it was supplemented by a new one — a happy one.

Five weeks after suffering one of the most agonizing Grand Slam defeats in years, Sinner raised both arms in victory and smiled after delivering a 137-mph serve that Alcaraz couldn’t return, sealing his first Wimbledon championship, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. With his arms still above his head, he laughed before dropping them and blowing a sigh of relief.

“This was a dream of a dream,” he said.

His victory accomplished two things: It gave him his first major title on a surface other than hard court, where he has won twice at the Australian Open and once at the U.S. Open. Now there is no doubt that Sinner — the first Italian to win a singles title at Wimbledon — has a full résumé. He’s the world No. 1 with 19 career titles who played in an astounding fourth consecutive major final Sunday.

Yet the ultimate testament to the quality of a player’s game is success at Grand Slams across surfaces.

But mostly, Sunday was a matter of keeping pace with Alcaraz. As significant as their rivalry is to tennis at large as a dazzling driver of interest in the sport and a defining element of this era of the men’s game, it also matters deeply to both players. One of Sinner’s coaches, Darren Cahill, said his student watches Alcaraz matches more than he watches anyone else on tour.

“He’s fascinated with the improvements that are coming in [Alcaraz’s] game,” Cahill said, “and he’s pushing us as coaches to make sure that he’s improving also as a tennis player as well.”

Alcaraz kept it simple when he addressed Sinner during the trophy presentation on the court.

“Thank you,” the 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon champion said, “for the player you are.”

Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s final was the first to feature the same players from that year’s French Open final since the 2008 classic between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Alcaraz is just 22, Sinner is just 23, and already they have combined to win nine of the past 12 Grand Slam titles, including the past seven. Novak Djokovic took the other three.

The rivalry had been tilting the Spaniard’s way until Sunday, when Sinner got his first win in six meetings — Alcaraz’s five-match winning streak had dated from March 2024.

“Jannik has had chances in maybe four of the five matches they’ve played to beat him. Hasn’t been able to get the victory,” Cahill said. “So today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam final, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last five matches against him. He needed that win today.”

Walking onto Centre Court just after 4 p.m., they were greeted by a standing ovation from a boisterous crowd that alternated shouting “Forza, Jannik!” and “¡Vamos, Carlitos!” A glittery collection of tennis nobility looked on from the Royal Box, including Stan Smith, Andre Agassi, Stefan Edberg, Chris Evert, Lleyton Hewitt and the family of Arthur Ashe, present in honor of the 50th anniversary of the trailblazer’s historic Wimbledon title. No. 1 vs. No. 2 felt like the sequel of the summer.

Sinner had picked up a few things from facing Alcaraz a few weeks ago. Namely, he knew the change of surface — from slow clay to speedy grass — worked to his advantage. The Italian built a 4-2 lead in the first set by employing his cracking groundstrokes and big serve like a puppet master, moving Alcaraz around to balls that were out of reach even for his fast legs.

But Sinner had to be perfect to evade Alcaraz consistently. When his focus wobbled just a hair, his execution dipped and Alcaraz took the next four games by playing high-risk tennis that irked Sinner because, frankly, against any other player, operating at 95 percent of his best would have been enough.

The first set ended with an eight-shot rally that equaled the longest back-and-forth of the match to that point; Alcaraz delivered a backhand winner even though his back was to the net and he nearly fell forward while hitting it. The crowd stood and roared as Alcaraz celebrated by putting a finger to his head.

Yet Sinner is a master compartmentalizer. His coaches were amazed by how quickly he moved on from the agony of the French Open loss — but less surprised by how he rebounded from losing the first set at Wimbledon. Sinner channeled his frustration by breaking Alcaraz in the first game of the second set.

Still, he was frayed, and he showed more emotion in the second set than he seemingly ever has on the court, which hinted at the tremendous stakes of the match. At one point, he stood with his hands on his hips in annoyance following a couple of jaw-dropping passing shots from Alcaraz, after which he missed a backhand just wide. When he pushed a tight second game to deuce, he yelled “Let’s go!” — and it sounded so foreign that people in the crowd checked among themselves to confirm that it was Sinner who had shouted, not an excited spectator.

“You know,” Sinner said, “winning Wimbledon is the most special thing you can have.”

The opening break was all he needed to take a tight second set. He relied on his serve to put himself in position to dictate points and continue drifting Alcaraz side to side, keeping him on the run. As Alcaraz’s winners steadily decreased, his body language drooped and he chirped briefly at his team. Alcaraz said he didn’t attack Sinner’s second serve well enough to get his teeth into games — and he said Sinner’s consistency was mentally draining.

“He was pushing me to the limit in every point,” Alcaraz said. “… It was really difficult when you are feeling that you are just defending all the time.”

Alcaraz was aiming to become the fifth man in the Open era to win three consecutive Wimbledon singles titles, following Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Federer and Djokovic. He had won 20 straight matches at the All England Club stretching back to 2022, when Sinner defeated him in the round of 16.

Sinner finally has his revenge. His team stopped talking about the loss at Roland Garros 24 hours after the match ended, but Sinner said, after processing it for some time, he didn’t feel too down because of the quality of tennis played. It was a loss, he said, to find some pride in, if such a thing exists.

This match, which secured Sinner’s first Wimbledon title, they might dwell on for a while longer.