Last Saturday, Iga Swiatek demolished Amanda Anisimova 6-0 6-0 in the Wimbledon women’s final. 24 hours later, Jannik Sinner outlasted Carlos Alcaraz 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 to claim the men’s Wimbledon title.
The women’s final was a bit of a surprise, as Swiatek had yet to win a title on grass and Anisimova was contesting her first ever Grand Slam final. Meanwhile the men’s final was a battle between the two best players in the world, who’d won the past six majors.
Swiatek: Turning an advantage into a rout
Despite her relative lack of success on quick, low-bouncing grass courts, Swiatek came into the final as the clear-cut favorite. Her serve and groundstrokes aren’t quite as fast as Anisomova’s, but the former world no. 1 is a far better mover and spins the ball more heavily to create margin of error when under pressure.
During the hour-long beatdown, Swiatek routinely struck the ball at no more than 80% of her full power. This put the onus on Anisimova to make something happen out of neutral situations, which she wasn’t able to do with any consistency.
Watch the video below for a detailed breakdown of what happened.
If you’re clearly better than your opponent, it’s better to play conservatively relative to your ability, as to force your opponents to overplay and beat themselves.
The past three Stanley Cup winners (Florida x2 and Vegas) followed the same strategy in the late stages of the playoffs.
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Sinner: Taking smart risks to overcome a disadvantage
The matchup was different in the Wimbledon men’s final.
Sinner came into the match as the top-seeded player, but may as well have been the underdog. Alcaraz had just beaten him in an epic French Open final and had not lost at Wimbledon since 2022.
There is nothing you, I or most ATP tennis pros can do to beat Alcaraz in a best-of-five set match.
However Sinner is almost just as good as Alcaraz is, which means he can use strategy to change the outcome.
The key to his victory: come to the net often, even if it’s out of his comfort zone
In the end, Sinner came to net 40 times to Alcaraz’s 23. Both players had almost identical success rates (75% to 74%), but Sinner’s risk-taking allowed him to spend 33% of points in an attacking position, to Alcaraz’s 20%.
On another day this aggressive strategy could’ve backfired on Sinner, who is more comfortable staying back and rallying with his opponent than charging forward on 50/50 balls. However, he had the presence of mind to pursue a less instinctual, higher-variance gameplan against a slightly superior rival.
In sum
Had Iga Swiatek followed Jannik Sinner’s risk-taking game plan, she wouldn’t have smothered Amanda Anisimova 6-0 6-0. Maybe it would’ve ended 6-3 6-3, still in her favor.
Yet, had Sinner played comfortable, conservative tennis like Swiatek did the day prior, he definitely would’ve lost to Carlos Alcaraz for the second Grand Slam final in a row.