At 10 PM on July 12 (Vietnam time), Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev will face off in the Wimbledon 2026 final to compete for the championship. They are both eager for a victory to affirm their đẳng cấp (level/class) on the grass court of All England Club.
As the No. 1 player on the ATP rankings, Sinner aims to regain the feeling of glory in the challenging 2026 year.
Meanwhile, Zverev, who is full of excitement after quenching his major title thirst with the Roland Garros championship last month, is trying to end his 9-match losing streak against Sinner. He also aims to become the first male player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam for the first time and then win a major tournament immediately afterwards.
So what hope does Zverev have against an opponent who has been "reading" him for nearly 2 years?
First of all, the German player will hope that the new court will bring a new beginning to this fateful match. Sinner and Zverev have never faced each other in any official grass court tournament.
Next is the reality that, for the first time, he will step onto the court to face the Italian player with the confidence of a Grand Slam champion.
I think there are 2 factors here," Zverev shared after winning a ticket to the final, while extending his consecutive winning streak at major tournaments to 11. "I think, the first thing is definitely that once you win a Grand Slam, you know how and feel you can do it again.
Secondly, I feel that I have improved my playing style and form a lot. Sometimes in sports, everything is just that simple.
Sinner is definitely someone who understands very well the confidence that positive results can bring.
At the beginning of this season, he enjoyed a streak of 30 consecutive wins - the longest in his career - and won 5 ATP Masters 1000 titles in a row. However, that streak interspersed with disappointments at the Australian Open (losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals) and at Roland Garros (losing to Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round).
However, the player who has won 4 Grand Slam titles probably will not think about those defeats when stepping out of SW19. After a difficult start - winning against Miomir Kecmanovic after 5 sets - the 24-year-old player did not lose a set and showed top form when eliminating Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Sinner highly appreciates Zverev, although the 1m98 tall player has never passed the 4th round at Wimbledon until this year. This is quite surprising statistic if considering the famous thunderous serve of the German player, which is very suitable for grass courts where the ball goes fast and bounces low.
Sinner also had an almost perfect serving performance against Djokovic - winning 88% (45/51) of points from first serve.
With Zverev definitely replacing Carlos Alcaraz to rise to world No. 2 next Monday, the Wimbledon final represents an opportunity for him to go deeper into breaking the Sinner-Alcaraz monopoly at the peak of men's tennis.
Even with everything he has achieved in the past few months, the 29-year-old player is only focusing on trying to finish Sunday as the 7th male player in the Open Era to win both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year.
