Australian Open: Jannik Sinner’s thrilling comeback stuns Daniil Medvedev to take home maiden Grand Slam title
The Newz Radar
Melbourne: Italian Jannik Sinner produced a monumental comeback in the Australian Open final on Sunday (Jan 28) after he beat Russian Daniil Medvedev at the Rod Laver Arena. Sinner, playing against the former US Open champion came back from two sets down to win 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to clinch his maiden Grand Slam title.
The defeat for Medvedev was his third at the Australian Open having also lost in the 2021 and 2022 finals to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal respectively. The win against Medvedev also means that only for the second time in 19 years there has been a winner other than Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
In a contest that lasted over three hours, the 22-year-old was at the receiving end of a great show from Medvedev in the opening two sets and lost 6-3, 6-3 before mounting the comeback. Having been broken three times during the opening two sets, Sinner was under pressure to keep hold of his serve. However, he showed nerves of steel to mount a comeback.
In the third set with both players reluctant to lose their serve, it was the decisive 10th game where Sinner capitalised. With Medvedev serving stay in the set, Sinner broke his serve to pocket everything 6-4. Sinner, by winning the set on Medvedev’s serve, was handed a realistic advantage of serving first in the fourth set.
In a Deja Vu moment in the fourth set, it was again the 10th game where Sinner broke Medvedev to bring the match to parity. The 22-year-old Italian won the fourth set 6-4.
In the final set, with momentum on his side, he again broke the Russian in the sixth game to seize advantage. Sinner would then consolidate on the fifth-set lead to finally serve for the Championship and win the Australian Open title.
With the win, he becomes the first Italian player to win a men’s singles Grand Slam since Adriano Panatta. The Legendary player won the 1976 French Open and since then Italy has seen a Grand Slam drought in men’s singles. Matteo Berrettini came closer to ending the drought in 2021 when he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Wimbledon Championships.
