Jannik Sinner and Serena Williams both played at Wimbledon 2026, and both likely met the ends many expected of them. Sinner took home his second straight plate at the grass-court major, while Williams returned to singles for the first time since 2022 and lost in the first round.
As for one former Williams coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, he wasn't overly impressed with how well Sinner played in the final, calling the performance "very average." To be fair, he's right, though there is a catch.
Mouratoglou posted on Instagram that while Sinner's form was "average," he also pointed out that the ATP No. 1 had plenty left in the proverbial tank. The Italian's averageness, you see, is a level that most players will likely never reach. Even not at his best, Sinner is better than most, and that includes newly minted ATP No. 2 Alexander Zverev.
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The Italian defeated the German in four sets in the Wimbledon final. Sinner won the last three sets after Zverev had won the opener. Any hope he had of actually winning his first Wimbledon was slowly, and quite brutally, slipping away as he was being beaten by a better overall player.
Mouratoglou posted on Instagram, "It was not a great Jannik Sinner, and imagine, he won a Grand Slam. This Sinner, if you compare his usual level in the last months to his level during Wimbledon, I would say he was at 65 to 70 percent... Even though he was very average, I think it's going to be very useful for the future for him to know that he can win a Grand Slam being at 70 percent in terms of quality of tennis."
That, of course, begs the question of whether Sinner at 70 percent would have beaten Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final had they played. The Sinner versus Alcaraz rivalry will define this generation of men's tennis, and each player brings out the best in the other.
If either shows up to a match between the two and plays at 70 percent, they will likely lose, but that is what makes the rivalry so great, and also why tennis needs both to perform well and not miss time due to getting hurt or, in the case of Sinner, being suspended for failing a drug test.
The flipside is that no player, not even Zverev, has stepped forward yet to truly make up a new Big 3. Tennis works best when not only two elite players are competing for major titles. The rivalry between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic was at its peak when all were trying to claim the same Masters 1000 or Grand Slam title.
Sinner and Alcaraz are fantastic players and worthy of all-time tennis greatness, but if both can perform at just 70 percent of their ability and still win majors if they aren't playing the other? That's probably not a good thing for the sport.
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