Tennis

It's hard to watch the way Jannik Sinner plays tennis and not think of Novak Djokovic. Of all the praise bestowed on Sinner after he won his second consecutive Australian Open championship, and third Grand Slam title overall, nothing felt as significant as the comparison made by runner-up Alexander Zverev on Sunday. Facing Sinner, particularly on hard courts, reminds Zverev a lot of trying to solve the challenge presented by none other than 24-time major champion Djokovic. Sinner beat Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 at Melbourne Park. That made the No. 1-ranked Sinner 80-6 with nine titles since the start of last season.

Australian Open women’s champion Madison Keys has returned to her career-best ranking and joins three other American women in the WTA top 10, while men’s champion Jannik Sinner maintained his significant lead atop the ATP list. Keys won her first Grand Slam title with a three-set victory over the top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday to move from No. 14 and match her career-high at No. 7. Keys joins fellow Americans Coco Gauff (No. 3), Jessica Pegula (No. 6) and Emma Navarro, who slipped one place to No. 9, in the women’s top 10. The men’s top four rankings remained as they were with Sinner at No. 1 leading Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz.

Jannik Sinner has defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to claim his second consecutive Australian Open championship. The victory in the final Sunday night by the 23-year-old Italian makes him the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy two years in a row since Jim Courier in 1992-93. Sinner has won three of the past five major tournaments, including the 2024 U.S. Open, and rose to No. 1 in the ATP rankings last June. He’s also on a career-best 21-match winning streak. The No. 2-ranked Zverev is now 0-3 in Grand Slam finals.

Alexander Zverev says he is feeling down and emotional after once again coming within one win of earning his first Grand Slam title. And unlike his first two defeats in major finals — both of which he led, and both of which went five sets — Zverev did not come close to reaching the finish line Sunday in the Australian Open final. It ended with defending champion Jannik Sinner holding the trophy after a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory. Zverev is ranked No. 2, one spot behind Sinner. The 27-year-old German says he does not want to end his career without ever winning a major championship.

Moments after Alexander Zverev’s loss in the Australian Open final, a person in the stadium yelled out the names of two of the tennis star's ex-girlfriends who have accused him of physical abuse in the past, saying “Australia believes” them. As Zverev stood at a microphone waiting to speak during the trophy ceremony Sunday, a voice repeated the phrase three times. Some others in the crowd at Rod Laver Arena booed and whistled. At his news conference following the match, Zverev, a 27-year-old from Germany, was asked for his reaction to the interruption and he said he would not “open up that subject again.”

Jannik Sinner defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to claim his second consecutive Australian Open championship. The victory in Sunday's final by the 23-year-old Italian makes him the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy in conscutive years since Jim Courier in 1992-93. Sinner has won three of the past five major tournaments and has held the ATP's No. 1 ranking since last June. The No. 2-ranked Zverev is now 0-3 in major finals. The men's final concluded the 15-day tournament. Madison Keys won her first Grand Slam singles title Saturday night, ending Aryna Sabalenka’s bid for a third consecutive Australian women's title. The next major starts May 19 at Roland Garros.

Taylor Townsend of the United States has returned to the court on which her career first took flight, teaming with Katerina Siniakova to beat Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open. Top-seeded Townsend and Siniakova led 6-2, 5-3 and served for the match for the first time at 5-4 in the second set. But third-seeded Hsieh and Ostapenko rallied to take the second set in a tie-break. Townsend and Siniakova were able to fall back on proven teamwork on crucial points to claim the title.

Madison Keys says she kept telling herself to be brave down the stretch of a tight third set in the Australian Open final against two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka. The score was 5-all, 30-all on Saturday night before Keys claimed six of the last eight points to earn her first Grand Slam title less than a month before she turns 30. The American was long ago labeled a tennis prodigy. She credits therapy with helping her confront her nerves instead of suppress them and with not worrying about whether she would ever win a major title.

Defending champion Jannik Sinner will face Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open men's final on Sunday. Sinner is seeking his third Grand Slam title overall. Zverev is trying to win his first after finishing as the runner-up in two previous major finals. Sinner is a 23-year-old from Italy who is seeded No. 1. Zverev is a 27-year-old from Germany who is seeded No. 2. It is the first time the men seeded 1-2 will meet each other in the final at Melbourne Park since No. 1 Novak Djokovic beat No. 2 Rafael Nadal in 2019. Zverev advanced when Djokovic quit because of an injury after one set of their semifinal.

Novak Djokovic has posted a scan of his injured left hamstring on social media more than 24 hours after being booed at the Australian Open when he quit playing one set into his semifinal because of what he said was a torn muscle. The 24-time Grand Slam champion put the picture of the MRI taken Saturday on X and wrote: “Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there.” He did not offer any additional information, such as the exact diagnosis he might have received or any timeline for his recovery.

Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara have rallied from losing a contentious first set to win the Australian Open men's doubles title 6-7 (16), 7-6 (5), 6-3 over the Italian pairing of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. The Italians had a point overturned while serving for the first set because of a foul shot. Chair umpire Thomas Sweeney called Vavassori for an infringement in the 10th game because his racket crossed the line of the net as he hit a volley that he thought would earn set point. Heliovaara and Patten were awarded the point, broke for 5-5 but couldn’t convert 10 set points. They rallied to win the next two sets to add a title in Melbourne to their Wimbledon championship.