Marion Bartoli gives her opinion on if Alexander Zverev will ever challenge to win Wimbledon again

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Alexander Zverev’s best-ever Wimbledon campaign didn’t end with the winner’s trophy, as he lost to Jannik Sinner in the final.

The German may well have thought this was his year when he won the first set 7-6 (9-7), but it wasn’t to be.

Sinner fought back brilliantly, winning 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4, condemning Zverev to a fourth Grand Slam final defeat.

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During BBC Radio 5 Live’s post-match coverage, former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli gave her verdict on whether Zverev will ever challenge for the title again.

Marion Bartoli says Alexander Zverev is ‘absolutely’ going to have another chance to win Wimbledon

Bartoli was impressed by Zverev at Wimbledon this year and thinks there is more to come from the German.

“I just feel he is getting closer and closer,” she said.

“Probably last year, when he lost in the first round, he was feeling so far away from getting a chance to win Wimbledon, and this year it absolutely came down to a few points here and there.

Alexander Zverev’s Wimbledon results

• 2015 – Lost in 2R to Denis Kudla
• 2016 – Lost in 3R to Tomas Berdych
• 2017 – Lost in 4R to Milos Raonic
• 2018 – Lost in 3R to Ernests Gulbis
• 2019 – Lost in 1R to Jiri Vesely
• 2021 – Lost in 4R to Felix Auger-Aliassime
• 2023 – Lost in 3R to Matteo Berrettini
• 2024 – Lost in 4R to Taylor Fritz
• 2025 – Lost in 1R to Arthur Rinderknech
• 2026 – Lost in F to Jannik Sinner

“He’s going to get a chance. If he keeps playing that type of tennis, he is absolutely going to have a chance to win Wimbledon one day.

“But for today, it was Jannik Sinner’s day.”

Bartoli also shared her thoughts on the match, highlighting what made the difference for Sinner.

“I felt the level from both players was absolutely outstanding today,” she said.

“It came down to a few points here and there, extremely small margins, an extraordinary defence from Jannik to get a ball back when Sascha was just smashing the ball at him.

“Crucial serves at crucial moments, flawless tiebreak in the second set, it came down to him raising his level to 100% to be able to get the win today.”

She then reacted to Sinner’s winner’s speech, where he said Zverev was getting ‘very close’ to him in the race for the world number one ranking.

“He said it in a funny way with a smile when he said that Sascha’s goal is to get to number one in the world, and he has to watch out because he’s getting close,” said Bartoli.

“I think he genuinely feels he is getting a lot closer now. Obviously, Novak [Djokovic] is playing an extremely light schedule, and Carlos [Alcaraz], being away, unfortunately, because of that long-lasting wrist injury. Zverev is now the one, if there is one, player who is going to challenge Jannik, in terms of the ranking, to finish the year number one.

“As Sinner said, they’re going to keep doing the homework, with Darren Cahill, Simone Vagnozzi, with everyone else, to keep having that slight edge, because that gap is just getting smaller and smaller.”

How big is the gap between Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev?

The reality is that Zverev isn’t all that close to Sinner in the world rankings.

He trails Sinner by 4,970 points. To put into context just how big a deficit that is, only three players (Sinner, Zverev, and Alcaraz) currently have more than 4,970 ranking points.

Live ATP Rankings

However, the ‘Live ATP Race’ tells another story.

While Sinner still has a healthy lead, Zverev is, hypothetically, a US Open win away from taking the top spot.

Live ATP Race

If anyone is going to finish year-end number one ahead of Sinner, it’s going to be Zverev.

Both players will look to add to their points tallies when they return to action at the Canadian Open later this month.