Jannik Sinner meets a familiar face on flight home as crazy $250,000 bet is revealed
Alexander Zverev may have seen enough of Jannik Sinner after his chastening defeat in the Australian Open final, but he had an unexpected chance to spend plenty more time with the world No 1 on their way back from Melbourne.
Zverev was beaten in straight sets by a dominant Sinner and broke down in tears at the end of the match as he admitted he did not get close to his Italian rival.
The world No 2 may well have wanted to spend some time away from his big rival, but that option was taken away from Zverev as Sinner was sat in the row behind him in their first class compartment as they flew back from from Melbourne.
Zverev and Sinner were both heading back to Dubai after their Australian Open campaigns, it was no surprise to see the top two men in tennis booking the same return flight.
It may take some time for Zverev to recover from the beating he received from Sinner, with the emotion he showed at the end of the match likely to be due, in part, to the reality that he has a lot of work to do to challenge the dominant Italian.
“In general, Jannik is better than me at the moment. It’s as simple as that,” admitted Zverev in his post-match press conference.
I think I served better than Jannik, and everything else he does better. So at the end of the day, he deserves to win. He’s the best player on hard courts right now. It’s as simple as that.
“He completely outplayed me. From the back of the court, completely outplayed me.
“As I said, I’m serving better than him, but that’s it. He does everything else better than me. He moves better than me. He hits his forehand better than me. He hits his backhand better than me. He returns better than me. He volleys better than me.
“At the end of the day, tennis has five or six massive shots, like massive factors, and he does four or five of them better than me. That’s the reason why he won. He deserved to win today.”
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Zverev then gave Sinner the ultimate compliment when he suggested the new king of the men’s game is playing at a level that could be compared to 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.
“He’s very, very similar to Novak when he was at his best,” he added. “They barely miss, like barely miss. They make you think like you have to overhit all the time to have a chance in a rally against them.
“It’s very, very difficult to win a point from the back of the court against them, against Novak and him. Move tremendous. They’re constantly on the baseline. They don’t give you any space. They don’t give you any time. Yeah, I mean, just right now too good for me.
“Again, I’ll do everything I can to be able to compete with them and to lift the trophy, but I was nowhere near good enough.
“He serves better. He returns better. He hits his forehand better. He hits his backhand better. He moves better. He volleys better. I mean, there’s nothing that he doesn’t do better right now.
“I remember those matches (when he beat Sinner in the past). Before I always felt like once I was getting on top of the rally, I was winning most of those rallies. Yeah, now it’s like he’s prime Novak. It’s so difficult to go through him.
So yeah, I think he’s just all around a much better tennis player than he was back then.”
Sinner’s win was good news for Canadian rapper Drake, who placed a $250,000 bet on the world No 1 winning the final against Zverev.
Drake famously placed a $210,000 bet on Taylor Fritz beating Sinner in last year’s US Open and lost that punt, but he was not going to make the same mistake again.
Sinner’s win saw Drake collect $345,000, meaning he made $95,000 profit on a match that looked certain to go Sinner’s way throughout.
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