The final of Wimbledon 2025 is now set, and the opponents are what everyone expected all along. In a tournament of upsets, the most obvious is what tennis fans will see on the men's side. Jannik Sinner versus Carlos Alcaraz is something we should be used to by now.
In Sinner's semifinal, he faced Novak Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion and inarguably the greatest player ever. The Serb might have had a difficult time defeating Sinner anyway, but the Serb was obviously not 100 percent.
He had injured his hip or groin at the end of his quarterfinal match, and there were questions about whether he could play in the semis. He was healthy enough to play, possibly at about 80 percent of what he is capable of, and might have done well against most players, but Sinner is not most players.
Jannik Sinner will meet Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon 2025 final
In the first set, Sinner showcased what separates him and Alcaraz from the rest of tennis currently. They each move so well. The Italian was not only able to chase down excellent shots from Djokovic, but return them to places Djokovic couldn't get. That is not a slight on the Serb, but it is the difference between the top two players on the ATP tour and the rest of the hundreds that play.
Sinner got two breaks of Djokovic, and had nine winners against just five unforced errors. The Serb also didn't get a point off Sinner's first serve and only two overall.
While Djokovic was certainly not feeling his best, he is a great enough champion that he wasn't going to use the injury as an excuse. Even healthy, Sinner was likely going to win because at this stage of their respective careers, the Italian is the better player.
After winning the first set 6-3, Sinner was only slightly less effective in the second set. He got the only break needed to take the set 6-3, but at least Djokovic won four total points off Sinner's serve. The Italian was playing ruthlessly efficient tennis with 15 winners and just five unforced errors, however.
Impressively for Djokovic, after getting a visit from the medic in between sets two and three, he held to begin the set, and then, nearly miraculously, broke Sinner to lead 2-0. While a comeback would have been one of the bigger feats of Djokovic's historic career, the fact that he could appear to make it a better match than it began only further proved his greatness.
Things changed extremely quickly after Djokovic reached a 3-0 lead, though. Sinner held and then got a break. He repeated that with ease and then served to suddenly lead 5-3. Djokovic was struggling physically, but Sinner was the better player. He took that third and final set 6-4.
Sinner and Alcaraz, who defeated Taylor Fritz in the other semifinal match, will expectedly play in the final. That sentence might be copied and pasted an indefinite number of times into the future. The final will take place at 4 pm BST (11 am ET) on Sunday, July 13.