Following an eventful finals weekend at the All England Club, another Wimbledon has come to a close, with Jannik Sinner successfully defending his title and 21-year-old Linda Noskova clinching her first Grand Slam trophy.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the fortnight gone by at SW19.
Sinner’s most underrated quality
Call it his most underrated asset, or perhaps his least obvious one. Either way, Sinner’s ability to bounce back from a gut punch is truly remarkable.
For a second year in a row, the Italian responded to a setback at Roland Garros with a title run at Wimbledon, all within six weeks.
In 2025, Sinner blew a two-sets-to-love lead and three match points before he lost the French Open final to familiar foe Carlos Alcaraz. He beat the Spaniard to lift the Wimbledon trophy five weeks later.
This year, Sinner exited Roland Garros in bizarre circumstances, squandering a 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo to lose in the second round. To this day, his team say they aren’t sure what happened physically for Sinner to collapse like that in the Paris heat.
But irrespective of the reason, for Sinner to come back four weeks later and compete in warm conditions at Wimbledon, without playing a tune-up on grass, and make his way to a second successive title at the tournament is an impressive feat.
He battled through a five-setter against Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round, played a near-perfect match against Novak Djokovic in the semis, and knocked out an aggressive and confident Alexander Zverev in the final en route to a fifth Grand Slam crown.
The serve was a standout shot for the 24-year-old Italian, who never got broken through the semis and final, facing just one break point in each of those matches.
We have seen in the past how great rivalries shape a player’s development, like how the 'Big Three' of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer elevated their games thanks to their match-ups against one another.
Sinner and Alcaraz have done that for each other too. But we are now seeing that Sinner has a boundless drive to improve and problem-solve, even in the absence of his greatest rival Alcaraz, who has been out injured since April.
Speaking to the Tennis Channel after the final on Sunday, Sinner was asked what he learnt about himself during the Wimbledon fortnight.
“Many things to be honest because I understand more and more how important the team around you is,” he replied.
“Because only they know how much effort and work you put in daily. After Paris we changed a couple of things. We had very, very long days in Monaco working on the physical side.
“I always look for honest people around me because they are going to tell me, in good days but also in bad days, what we need to change and I am doing everything possible to be the best possible version of myself.
“I’m dedicating my whole life to be the best tennis player I can be, for myself. Because I understood competition is not against anyone else, it’s just about myself.”
That last line is the real tell. For Sinner, the biggest drive comes from within.
He has five majors before turning 25 and has won five Masters 1000 titles and a Grand Slam in the first six and a half months of 2026. The Sinner bullet train is not stopping anytime soon.
Czechs’ unbreakable bond with Wimbledon
For the third time in four years, a Czech woman has won Wimbledon – this time it was Noskova, who recovered from a mid-match collapse to edge past compatriot Karolina Muchova in three sets.
From the Czech-born Martina Navratilova, to the late great Jana Novotna, to Petra Kvitova, Marketa Vondrousova, Barbora Krejcikova and now Noskova, there is a special connection between women from the Czech Republic and the lawns of Wimbledon.
The players are always asked about the secret behind the success of Czech women at the All England club and they can never quite put a finger on it.
Some say it helps when you grow up witnessing the greatness of those who came before you. Watching a compatriot lift a trophy makes you believe you can do it too.
Some were actually helped by their predecessors, with Novotna coaching Krejcikova as well as Noskova in various points of their careers before she passed away.
Others credit training indoors in cold conditions back home with helping them perform well on a fast surface like grass.
Either way, the bond between the Czechs and Wimbledon is undeniable. What is even more interesting is that each player has won playing a different style of tennis.
Noskova rose to the occasion in her first major final, first taking a 6-2, 5-2 lead, then suffering a serious lapse that allowed Muchova back into the match, before finding a way to reset and secure the title.
She gave an emotional victory speech in which she paid tribute to her mother Ivana, who lost her life to cancer two years ago on the eve of Wimbledon.
Both finalists pulled us in with their raw and honest words on court after the final. Building that kind of connection with the audience is really what sport is all about.
Continuity for Zverev, Kostyuk
Having Roland Garros and Wimbledon so close to each other in the calendar has its pros and cons. While some players can struggle with the abrupt surface change and the short amount of time to prepare for a Grand Slam on grass, others find it easy to carry momentum from one major to another.
That’s what players like Zverev and Marta Kostyuk have been able to do this year, with the former backing up his maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open with a career-best run to the final at Wimbledon, and the latter reaching the semi-finals in both tournaments.
At 29, Zverev is finally unlocking an aggressive side of his game that had been dormant for so long.
“Big, big respect to Sascha, because he's doing something amazing. His game is growing and growing,” noted Sinner, who has won his last 10 matches against Zverev but was pushed hard in their four-set final on Sunday.
Kostyuk, who is up to a career-high No 11 in the world, has proven to herself she can contend on the biggest stages.
“I think at this moment I'm the most happy with the freedom that I gave myself to try different things on the court and just to play tennis,” said the Ukrainian.
“For sure I'm super happy with how I deal with the losses. I mean, it's one thing to talk about this, but then once you lose, it's how you deal with it. Right now I'm sitting here and I really feel like I won today. It's all that matters.”
Wimbledon had a little bit of everything
It’s not always easy to pay attention to other sports when the World Cup is happening, but there were so many different narratives that deserve recognition.
A 39-year-old Novak Djokovic played an unbelievable match lasting five hours and 15 minutes to beat third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime and reach an eighth consecutive Wimbledon semi-final.
Seven years after her Wimbledon breakthrough as a 15-year-old, Coco Gauff made her way to a maiden semi-final at the All England Club, while Naomi Osaka has finally found her footing on grass, reaching the final in Bad Homburg and a first Wimbledon quarter-final.
Jan-Lennard Struff became the oldest first-time Grand Slam men’s quarter-finalist at the age of 36, while Arthur Fery made it all the way to the semis as a British wildcard ranked 114 in the world. That moment when the Queen surprised Fery by saying hello to him in the clubhouse before he stepped onto the court for his quarter-final was something he probably never would have imagined in his wildest dreams.
In wheelchair women’s singles, Japan’s Yui Kamiji achieved a goal she had set for herself at the start of the year by finally capturing the only major title that had eluded her.
She completed the career golden slam by defeating her long-time rival Diede de Groot 6-0, 6-0 and gave an emotional, tearful speech after her win, describing how much it meant to her.
What was also beautiful was seeing so many former champions turn up to watch the matches. From Roger Federer’s iconic shot sitting alone in the Royal Box to watch Zverev, to the host of incredible women, like Billie Jean King, Kvitova, Maria Sharapova, and Navratilova, who were all there for the women’s final, the celeb-spotting in the stands was at times just as entertaining as the tennis.
There aren’t that many sports in the world where you get the Queen, Bad Bunny, David Beckham, Jennifer Lopez, Dustin Hoffman, Kimi Antonelli, Virgil Van Dijk, Andy Murray, Niall Horan, Andrew Garfield, Usain Bolt, Rory McIlroy, and Eileen Gu all attending the same event.
What a fortnight it was!
