Alexander Zverev put in an admirable performance in today’s Wimbledon final, surprising many with his courage and quality.
Sadly, it was not enough to truly trouble Jannik Sinner, who came from behind to win in relatively comfortable fashion in the end.
It does feel like, of all the remarkable points won at crucial junctures, the most important moment of the match occured in the third set.
With the scores still perfectly balanced, Alexander Zverev slipped at the back of the court and winced in pain as he returned to his feet, with the help of Sinner.
Speaking at his press conference, he has now revealed the extent of how much this impacted him.
Alexander Zverev explains if his slip impacted his performance
Zverev revealed: “No, I overextended my knee again, similar to two years ago.
“I was struggling to push off on the serve a little bit. So my serve speed went down. But everything else went fine. I was moving fine from the baseline and playing from the baseline fine. But on the serve, I was struggling a little bit more.”
How many Wimbledon titles will Jannik Sinner retire with?
He's a two-time champion! Roger Federer holds the men's singles record with eight…
Then, speaking about how much he believed that he would genuinely beat Sinner after winning the first set and playing so well in the second, he added: “Well, I don’t know if I was in control, but I felt like we were playing on a very, very similar level, which is extremely high. I think both of us were playing at an extremely high level the first two sets.
“I missed an unfortunate forehand to start the second-set tiebreak. That kind of changed the momentum a little bit. Overall, I thought that the level was very good.
“I think the fall didn’t help me in the third set. In the third set, my level dropped a little bit. But then I picked it up in the fourth again. I just got broken, yeah, in a little bit unlucky way, so…
“That was the match. But overall I thought it was quite high level throughout the match from both of us.”
Sinner shared huge praise for Zverev in his post-match interview, before Darren Cahill spoke about whether he plans to continue coaching Sinner next year.
Andy Roddick has a big hope for Carlos Alcaraz after the Wimbledon final
Despite the quality of this Wimbledon final, it was hard not to miss Carlos Alcaraz throughout the match.
Speaking live on ESPN, Andy Roddick appeared to echo that sentiment, bringing the Spaniard back into the conversation when asked if we have now entered the ‘Jannik Sinner era’.
He instead claimed: “I think we’re in the Sinner Alcaraz era. Like firmly, and we have been for a minute.
Is it time to start panicking about Carlos Alcaraz?
He's out of another Grand Slam…
“I think this moment in time, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say, okay, we have Borg McEnroe, we have Pete [Sampras] and Andre [Agassi], we have the Big Three, we have Chrissy and Martina. Chrissy, get better; we love you. We hope you’re watching; we miss you.
“And absolutely, Venus and Serena, like, we all associate that with certain moments in tennis time, and we’re absolutely in that era, not only for Jannik Sinner, but we hope for a healthy Carlos Alcaraz.
“I’m sure if he’s thinking about history books, but he’s right there in them now, right there on the heels of Edberg, Becker and other absolute icons of our game.”
