Will Alexander Zverev ever win a Grand Slam in peak Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz era: What the Australian Open 2025 final showed us

The 2025 Australian Open is behind us, and it was Jannik Sinner who won once again. The Italian capped off another brilliant fortnight down under with a precise and clinical performance against Alexander Zverev, who had no chance. The final score was 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3, and while the score doesn't imply utter dominance, it truly was that.

Sinner didn't allow a single break point in the match, which is only the second time in the past 20+ years that it has happened. The only other two players who did were Roger Federer in 2003 when he did it at Wimbledon and Rafael Nadal at the 2017 Roland Garros.

So, what have we learned from this year's Australian Open and the Australian Open final? Well, for starters, Alexander Zverev needs more to his game.

He's a fantastic tennis player who has now played three Grand Slam finals, two of them in the past 365 days, but he didn't win either of them. Contrary to the other two finals, he didn't stand a chance in this one, as he didn't even create a single break point despite playing well in the first half of the opening set.

The German played well for most of the second half of the second set, which he could have won had he been a bit luckier. The final set was where Sinner outplayed him again, proving that Zverev simply doesn't have the game to win a Grand Slam right now. He faced the best player in the world who was playing really solid tennis on that day and didn't even look close to winning.

The serve kept him in the game for a little bit, but when it really came to it, Zverev didn't have the baseline game to overpower one of the best baseliners in the sport today. That's a problem because most of today's tennis matches are decided on the baseline. Zverev doesn't have the game because it doesn't come naturally to him, and in contrast to Sinner, he has never been a naturally aggressive baseliner.

He's developed a decent attacking game in the past couple of years, but when put against one of the best at it, it's clearly not good enough. It's a problem because he's unlikely to win a Grand Slam until that part of his game clicks. Judging by how he performed against the top player in the world right now, a player who isn't likely going to take a step back, it's not going to happen anytime soon.

The frustration on Alexander Zverev's face accurately portrayed his mental state during the match. He was losing badly and he knew that there was nothing he could do that would change the outcome of the match. He tried but ultimately failed.

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Jannik Sinner is still the best player in the world

2025 Australian Open - Day 15 - Source: Getty

Another thing that the final showed us is that Jannik Sinner is still the best player in the world. The Italian largely cruised through this event, dropping only two sets during the entire run (against Holger Rune and Tristan Schoolkate).

Unlike Holger Rune, players like Zverev or Medvedev don't really trouble Jannik Sinner because they're not players who are going to bomb a forehand on the line at 7-6 in the final set of a Grand Slam. Sinner will, Alcaraz will, and that's why those two names are the top names right now.

It's a new year, but so far it's a familiar script as the one we saw in 2024. Sinner is the best on hard courts and nobody is even close. He had only three losses on that surface last year. Two of those came against Carlos Alcaraz, who was never going to trouble him much in Melbourne because he doesn't play well down under traditionally.

Alcaraz also once again failed at beating Novak Djokovic, which is proving to be a rather big mental hurdle for the young Spaniard. As for Sinner, he's now up to three Grand Slams in his career, only one behind Alcaraz, and with the way he played last year and this year, we could see the Italian match the Spaniard sometime this year.

Who knows, perhaps he can overtake him because right now there doesn't seem to be a player who is capable of beating him. This final showed it best - Sinner is way too consistent. The serve wasn't the best today, but when he needed a massive serve such as at 0-40 at 5-4 for Zverev in the second set, he hit three massive serves to wiggle out of that.

The baseline play is ridiculously consistent as he keeps playing like a robot. Very minimal mistakes and certainly no mistakes in the big moments and key rallies. He continues to amaze with his athleticism as well, slowly developing into a defensive powerhouse similar to that of Novak Djokovic. You can't hit a winner against him because it takes an outrageous shot to do so.

And finally, he seems to be rather healthy, which was always a concern with Sinner as he had some problems with that in the past. A healthy and competing Sinner is quite obviously a force to be reckoned with.