‘Prime Novak’: Jannik Sinner wins back-to-back Australian Open titles

He reached the Roland-Garros semi-finals last year – losing a thrilling five-setter to major rival Carlos Alcaraz – and exited Wimbledon in the quarter-finals to Daniil Medvedev.

The challenge for Sinner is to tick those grand slam titles off as well, as he bids to become what he described as “a complete player”, but even he can see the similarities between his game and that of Djokovic.

“It’s an amazing compliment from Sascha [Zverev],” Sinner said.

“I think everyone is different, in a way. Obviously, I have some similarities with Novak’s game style. I still believe when Novak plays at his best, it’s very tough to beat him.

“But game style-wise, I looked up to him, trying to understand what he’s doing, [and] how he handles the pressure moments and important moments.”

The defeat was Zverev’s third in as many major finals, but he will rue the events late in the second set when he was on the cusp of levelling the match.

With Sinner serving to try to force a tie-break, he double-faulted then slipped to 30-all when he dumped an attempted drop shot into the net.

Unperturbed, he went for another drop shot during the next point as both players scrambled back and forth in the best rally of the night, eventually ending with Sinner striking a down-the-line backhand past Zverev at the net.

Sinner escaped that game before the rivals traded mini-breaks as the tension soared. Then, with the tiebreak locked at four-all, a Sinner forehand took a friendly bounce off the net and dropped over for a winner – securing him a 5-4 lead, with two serves to come, in a crushing blow for the German.

Sinner cruised to a two-sets-to-love lead moments later, then poured on further pain with another break of serve in the sixth game of the third set, which was enough to seal the win.

“I’m doing everything I can. I’m working as hard as I ever did. I think I’m doing all the right things off-court … but I lost in straight sets today,” Zverev said.

“I don’t want to end my career as the best player of all-time to never win a grand slam, that’s for sure. I’ll keep doing everything I can to lift one of those trophies.”

Sinner’s third grand slam title comes fewer than three months before the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear the World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal into the Italian’s doping case.

He twice tested positive last March to banned substance clostebol, only for the sport’s integrity unit to accept his explanation and clear him of any wrongdoing five months later.

Sinner admitted after his semi-final victory over Ben Shelton that he struggles at times with his off-court challenges, so he said overcoming those to triumph again in Melbourne was a “very proud” moment.

“It’s actually tough to describe. Many things happen off the court that you maybe don’t know,” Sinner said.

“When I go on the court, even if sometimes it’s very difficult to block these kinds of things, I have the team and people who are close to me who trust me. That, for me, is even more important because I can talk with them very openly.

“When I go on court, I try to focus on the match. I know the match can be three, four, five hours, but that’s the gap of the day where I have to be very focused.”

Sinner paid tribute to his entire team, including coaches Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill, the Australian who is set to retire from coaching at year’s end.

Cahill previously helped Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep win grand slam titles, and joined Team Sinner in July 2022.

Sinner joked on court after the final that he might try to change Cahill’s mind.

“It’s going to be very difficult,” Sinner said, smiling. “He’s a very honest person.

“To be a good coach with many different players, you have to understand the player and get into the rhythm of the player, what he likes, what he doesn’t like. It takes for him just some weeks to get into that, and then he’s there.

“One thing I really love about him is he’s very humble. He [fits] into the team very good.”