Jannik Sinner defended his Wimbledon title on Sunday, beating Alexander Zverev 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4 in three hours and 46 minutes for his second consecutive SW19 crown and his fifth career Slam. He is the first man since Djokovic in 2019 to defend at Wimbledon and the first player in the Open Era to defend at Wimbledon and Roland Garros back-to-back in the same year at ages 24 or younger. Zverev, in his first Wimbledon final, took the opening tiebreak 9-7. Sinner won the next three sets in a row. It is the tenth consecutive match Sinner has won against Zverev, dating back to 2023.

Linda Noskova is the surprise Wimbledon women's champion. The 21-year-old Czech beat Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Saturday for her first Slam title, having survived five championship points in the second set before closing on the sixth. Two Czechs in the final, one Czech champion, the first all-Czech Slam women's singles final in the Open Era. Noskova becomes the 4th active Czech woman with a Slam title, joining Kvitova, Krejcikova, and Vondrousova.

Arthur Fery's wildcard run ended Friday, in three sets against Zverev on Centre Court, in front of a home crowd that stood for eight minutes at the end. He climbed 66 places in the rankings to a projected career-high World No. 48. Two Sundays from today, he turned 24.

Wimbledon — Men's Singles Semifinals

Wimbledon — Men's Singles Final

Wimbledon — Ladies' Singles Final

🎯 PICK 1 · JANNIK SINNER · To win Cincinnati (M1000)
The two-time defending Wimbledon champion, the No. 1 seed, and the cleanest hard-court form of any player on tour. The Cincinnati draw traditionally rewards defending Wimbledon champions.

🎯 PICK 2 · LINDA NOSKOVA · To reach the QF at Cincinnati (W1000)
The new Wimbledon champion carrying form onto hard courts; her 2026 hardcourt record is 12-4 with two 500-level SFs.

The Tipster Corner is analytical commentary, not financial advice. Always bet responsibly.

Stan Wawrinka's Wimbledon farewell against Berrettini eleven days ago was, without much of the coverage noting it, one of the last high-level appearances of a specific piece of tennis history. Wawrinka's one-handed backhand, driven from the shoulder, sliced back on defence, used to open the court on approach shots, is now essentially an artefact. There are, on the 2026 ATP tour, six one-handed backhands ranked inside the top 100: Lorenzo Musetti at No. 10, Grigor Dimitrov at No. 32, Stefanos Tsitsipas at No. 40, Denis Shapovalov at No. 44, Roman Safiullin at No. 62, and Roberto Bautista Agut at No. 76. Musetti is the only one under 30. Every other player in the men's top 100 uses a two-handed backhand. On the women's tour, the count is now zero. The last two-time top-100 one-handed WTA player, Tatjana Maria, retires from singles at the end of this season.

The shot is dying, and its death has a specific causal chain worth mapping.

The one-hander was the default backhand for the first sixty years of professional tennis. Laver, Rosewall, Kramer, Newcombe, all one-handers. Borg brought the two-hander into elite fashion in the mid-1970s. Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, hitting from opposite baseline positions, popularised it in North America. By 1990, the tour was 60-40 in favour of the two-hander. By 2010, it was 85-15. By 2026, it is 94-6 on the men's side and 100-0 on the women's.

The reason is mechanical. A two-handed backhand generates more consistent racket-head speed because the non-dominant hand adds a second point of force application. It is easier to hit at high pace on defence, easier to redirect on a return of serve, and, critically, easier to teach to a nine-year-old. The one-hander requires a longer swing arc, more careful footwork, and a slower learning curve. In an era of junior academies optimised for early-teenage tour results, the one-hander is a coaching choice that costs a player two to three years of ranking progress. Academies now systematically convert one-handed junior prospects to two-handers by age 12. The pipeline that used to produce Federers and Wawrinkas has, over the last decade, essentially stopped producing them.

The tactical death is the second layer. Modern tennis is played from three feet behind the baseline. Returns are hit off first serves that arrive at 210 km/h. Rallies are played at heights the one-handed backhand struggles to defend against, because the shoulder-driven swing does not reach as easily above chest height as a two-handed slap. Federer, Wawrinka, and Gasquet all built their careers on high-take-back one-handed backhands that could handle chest-and-above balls, but every one of them was also elite at moving forward, taking the ball early, and using slice to reset points. The contemporary game rewards none of those adjustments. Sinner, Alcaraz, Zverev, and Djokovic all sit on the baseline, take balls at hip height off both wings, and end rallies with the forehand. The one-hander is optimised for a game that is not being played anymore.

The aesthetic loss is the third layer, and the one that gets most of the commentary. The one-handed backhand is, watched in slow motion, one of the most beautiful mechanical actions in professional sport. The full body rotation, the extended follow-through, the visual of a single arm arcing across the frame, produced the shot that most casual tennis fans identify as the signature of the Federer era. It is also the shot that most players talk about missing when they see it. Musetti's one-hander is, on the current tour, watched with a specific kind of appreciation that no other groundstroke earns. The commentators, when he hits it well, still fall silent for two beats.

What is coming next is not the return of the shot. It is the further compression. Musetti at No. 10 is currently the highest-ranked one-hander since Wawrinka at No. 3 in 2016. If Musetti's back injury (chronic since 2023) forces him out before he defends his ranking, and if Tsitsipas continues to slide, the top 20 will contain zero one-handers for the first time since the ATP rankings began in 1973. The 2026-2027 juniors class, per the ITF's 2025 report, contains three one-handers in the world top 100 boys. All three are being encouraged by their national federations to convert before their sixteenth birthdays.

There is a tennis history reason the shot mattered. Rod Laver's grand-slam year was played on it. Björn Borg's rise happened on it. Roger Federer's career, arguably the most-watched career in tennis history, was built on it. Ken Rosewall's Australian Open finals at 37 were played on it. The two-hander is more effective. The one-hander is the shot the sport lost when it decided efficiency was the only measure of a good backhand.

Wawrinka's four-tiebreak farewell against Berrettini eleven days ago was, in one specific way, the last time a Wimbledon Centre Court crowd will get to watch a top-tier one-handed backhand played in anger. Musetti will probably produce another such match in 2027 or 2028. And then, when he goes, the shot goes with him.

Wimbledon 2026 Men's Final: Jannik Sinner vs Alexander Zverev
The four-set defence; Sinner's fifth Slam and 10th consecutive win over Zverev.

Wimbledon 2026 Women's Final: Linda Noskova vs Karolina Muchova
The all-Czech final; Noskova's first Slam after saving five championship points.

Jannik Sinner motors past Novak Djokovic, sets Alexander Zverev Wimbledon title clash
The clinical SF over Djokovic; three sets, no break points faced.

Wimbledon men's semifinal recap: Jannik Sinner to face Alexander Zverev in final after stomping Novak Djokovic
The full SF Friday recap, including Zverev's straight-set closeout of Fery.

Newport Hall of Fame Open (ATP 250) · July 13 – 19 · Outdoor grass · Newport, Rhode Island. The season's final grass event; low-ranked field.

Bastad, Gstaad, Bucharest (ATP 250s) · July 13 – 19 · Outdoor clay · A short clay swing between Wimbledon and the North American hardcourt block.

Palermo, Iasi, Prague (WTA 250s + 125s) · July 13 – 19 · Mixed surfaces.

On the horizon:

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