'This victory means a lot to me' says Sinner after retaining Wimbledon title

World number one and top seed Jannik

Sinner said "this victory means a lot to me" after becoming the

10th man to retain a Wimbledon title after a hard-fought

four-set win over German second seed Alexander Zverev Sunday.

The win gave the 24-year-old South Tyrolean his fifth grand slam

title, now just two behind 23-year-old great Spanish rival

Carlos Alcaraz.

The Spaniard, who is now world number three behind Zverev,

missed the London tournament with a wrist injury that also kept

him out of the French open, where Sinner wilted in the Paris

heat and suffered a shock second-round defeat to Argentine Juan

Manuel Cerundolo from two sets and 5-1 up.

Sinner, who joked that the final tension had been so high that

his mother had had to leave Centre Court twice, told the

post-match press conference Sunday evening:

"I think every Grand Slam is different. A different story, a

different environment, different feelings before the tournament.

This victory means a lot to me because it was tough after Paris.

Last year was tough too. But coming here, I tried to put myself

in the best possible position to be as competitive as possible."

"Sometimes you have a good result at a tournament, other times

not. There's nothing you can do. You can't call it failure if

you don't win a Grand Slam," he added.

"Those are really rare days. I've won five in my entire life.

We're talking about five Grand Slams, but at the end of the day,

they're just five days among many others.

"I improved throughout the entire tournament. If you look at my

performance in the first two or three matches and then at how I

finished the tournament, you see constant growth," the Italian

champion emphasized.

"It was exactly what I needed. I was looking for this

improvement, an improvement on my part as a player. And we

achieved it."

The meeting with the royal family was a bit awkward for him, he

said, because "I never know where the limit is." However, "you

can really see how much they love this sport. It's exactly the

same feeling we players get on the court when we see them

watching a tennis match.

"I asked the kids if they still play. They're very happy, yes,

they still play. We had a very short chat. The fact that they

even took the time to talk to me is really a very nice thing.

"Having the entire royal box there, all those people staying for

a match like this for about four hours, is fantastic."

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