A year earlier, Sinner had won his first Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park, before rising to world number one and seven more Tour titles. A year later, the Italian defended his title at the Australian Open, and as the undisputed favourite to win the tournament, how did Sinner cope with the pressure of being the defending champion and top seed?

"It's probably going to put more pressure and attention on me, which is something I have to deal with. But on the other hand, because I've already won once, I know that I'm fully capable of doing it, and you try to understand the cause and effect. "I understand that every day is different, you may not be 100 per cent in some games, and then in the next game you suddenly feel like you're in shape. I've learned a lot over the past year, not just about the results, but who I am and how I handle situations on the field. ”

Sinner, who currently has a 22-4 record at the Australian Open, won his second Australian Open title with an impeccable performance in the men's singles final against Zverev.

"I had a great performance tonight, I felt like I had a good serve from the start of the match and I got into my rhythm very quickly and I played at a high level. In the second set, I had good luck in the tie-break, and I'm sure everyone saw it. By all accounts, I've once again put in a high quality performance in Australia and I'm very happy about that, and it's amazing to be here to celebrate with my team, my family and the people I love. ”

Zverev spoke highly of Sinner after the final defeat and compared the Italian to Serbian star Novak Djokovic, to which Sinner said: "It's a lot of praise from Sasha [Zverev], I think everyone is different, obviously I have some similarities with Novak [Djokov] and I still believe that when Novak plays at his peak level, he is very, very difficult to beat." ”

'But I have a lot of admiration for him [Deyo] in terms of style of play and I try to understand why he does it, how he copes with the pressure on the pitch and how he deals with the key points. I still think we're two different players because everybody is different, but we definitely have similarities, like we hit the ball very cleanly, we move very well, we have good anticipation. ”

(Compiled by Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)