When Jannik Sinner arrived at three match points in the fourth set of his Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday, the memory of what happened five weeks ago in Paris was flashing through the minds of everyone inside Centre Court.
Everyone, perhaps, except world number one Sinner, who managed to banish any lurking demons from the darkest recesses of his brain to seal a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory and become the first Italian Wimbledon men’s singles champion.
Just as on the Parisian clay, 23-year-old Sinner was the better player for long periods. Just as at Roland Garros he had the title in his hands.
But unlike that day when three consecutive match points vanished in the fourth set and Alcaraz roared back to win the longest French Open final ever, this time the ice-cool Sinner was never going to be denied.
Alcaraz, whose bid to become only the fifth man in the professional era to win three successive Wimbledon titles was watched from the Royal Box by Spain’s King Felipe, saved one match point. But this time there was no escape for Alcaraz as Sinner fired down an unreturnable serve.
There were no ecstatic celebrations. Sinner raised his arms to the sky, before consoling the man he de-throned and headed off in time-honoured fashion to embrace those in his box.
“Back in the days when I was young, this was only a dream, because it was so far away from where I’m from,” the man from the Dolomites, who could have been a top skier, said on court.
“Emotionally I had a very tough loss in Paris. So I’m very happy that I held my nerves and yeah, it’s an amazing feeling.”
While Sunday’s duel contained some mind-boggling points, it lacked the twists of last month’s Roland Garros roller-coaster. It did, though, underline why the Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry is set to dominate men’s tennis for the foreseeable future.
Alcaraz had led their series 8-4 entering Sunday’s final, including winning their last five showdowns. So while Sinner was fuelled by a shot at redemption, he also needed to make a statement.
He did so with a superlative display of craft and skill. He refused to be knocked off track by losing the last four games of the first set and went on to pick apart Alcaraz’s game with a level of tennis his opponent could not match.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek took another stride towards tennis greatness by ruthlessly tearing apart American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 and lifting her first women’s singles Wimbledon trophy on Saturday.
The big occasion turned into a nightmare for Anisimova who became the first woman to lose a Wimbledon final by that painful scoreline since 1911 and the first to do so at any major since Steffi Graf routed Natasha Zvereva at the 1988 French Open.
Already a US Open champion and a four-times French Open winner, Swiatek’s demolition job at the All England Club meant that she became the youngest woman since a 20-year-old Serena Williams in 2002 to lift major titles on all three surfaces.
Her superb display on the sun-drenched lawns of London also ensured that she emerged as the first player since Monica Seles in 1992 to win her first six major finals.