Jannik Sinner stuns tennis world in Australian Open comeback win for the ages

Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner has staged one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the Australian Open to stun Daniil Medvedev and clinch his maiden grand slam singles title. The 22-year-old was blown away in the first two sets but bounced back to clinch a pulsating 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3 victory to become the first Italian man to win the Australian Open men's crown.

Sinner looked genuinely shellshocked in the opening two sets as perhaps the enormity of his first grand slam singles final took its toll. The Italian had only dropped two service games in the whole tournament coming into the match and remarkably faced no break points whatsoever in the semi-final victory over Novak Djokovic.

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However, it took Medvedev just 12 minutes to do what Djokovic couldn't and grab the fist break of the match as the Russian stormed to a one-set lead after just 36 minutes. The second stanza followed closely to the first, with the third seed's precision and consistency from the baseline proving too good for his Italian opponent.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Sinner when Medvedev emulated his first set feat by taking the second 6-3. Nine commentators Jim Courier and fellow tennis great Lleyton Hewitt both insisted they had never seen the Russian play to such a high standard before.

Infallible in his opening two sets, fatigue appeared to creep into Medvedev's game in the third stanza as Sinner grew into the contest. The Russian had spent almost six hours longer on court than Sinner going into the tournament and the Italian looked fresher as he began to win more of the longer baseline rallies.

Sinner got a crucial break in the tenth game, before serving it out to force the championship match into a fourth set. Both players refused to give an inch and a tense back-and-forth ensued as the fourth set edged towards a tiebreak and the contest ticked over the three-hour mark.

Epic Jannik Sinner comeback wows tennis world

The longer the contest went on and the greater the number of shots in a series of bruising baseline rallies, the better Sinner started playing. In the tenth game, the Italian found another level to take a momentous break and the set against Medvedev to send the championship match into a decider.

The finishing line was in sight for Sinner when he broke Medvedev in the sixth game of the deciding set, before holding serve to jump out to a 5-2 lead. Despite appearing visibly exhausted in what was his fourth match to go the distance this tournament, Medvedev gave it everything. Sinner was just too good and his fresher legs ultimately proved the difference.

The exhausted Russian did force Sinner to serve for his maiden grand slam title after reducing the deficit to 5-3. It merely prolonged the inevitable though as Sinner wrapped up an astonishing victory before slumping to the court in disbelief and sending the tennis world into raptures.

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