How Sinner out-served a faster, harder-hitting Zverev at Wimbledon
5 min readJul 13, 2026 10:10 PM IST In theory, Alexander Zverev should have been the happier man walking off Centre Court on Sunday. He out-aced Sinner 17 to 15 and landed 80 per cent of his first serves to Sinner’s 66. He lost anyway, 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4. The difference wasn’t power, it was what each man did with the points that followed. Sinner won 80 per cent of points on his first serve to Zverev’s 71, and 65 per cent on his second to Zverev’s 61. He also out-returned Zverev, 43 return points to 34. Whenever the match needed deciding, Sinner had more ways to decide it. That efficiency has been rebuilt from close to nothing. Two years ago this would have sounded absurd. At the 2025 US Open final, also against Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner’s first serve landed just 48 per cent of the time. He lost. Days later, leaked practice footage showed him back on court working on the shot that had failed him under exactly that pressure. He won his next …
