Sinner's growing prowess as an all-court champ

Several layers could be peeled to lay bare the significance of Jannik Sinner landing the biggest cherry of his four-fruit heavy Grand Slam basket. Quite simply, as his coach Darren Cahill put it, "he needed the win" on Sunday.

- Rutvick Mehta

Not just because of what happened five Sundays ago, and how quickly Sinner overcame the trauma of Paris for the triumph in London. Or because Sinner finally made his presence felt in modern tennis' most riveting rivalry that had frozen towards a red-hot Carlos Alcaraz through their past five meetings.

But also because, and perhaps more crucially in the career path that would define the legacy of the Italian, it has established his rising prowess as an all-court champion.

Even before the 23-year-old scaled unrivalled ascendancy at the top of the world rankings and underlined his Grand Slam winning pedigree at the Australian Open in 2024, his record on hard courts was pretty solid. It's the natural surfaces that would often halt his march.

Alcaraz, meanwhile, was in the fast lane, no matter the surface. In the 2024 French Open that followed Sinner's maiden major, the Spaniard became the youngest man to win Slams across all three surfaces at 21.

Alcaraz was an all-court wizard. Sinner a hard-court bully. A year on, Sinner may still be that, but he's no longer just that.