LONDON (AP) — A perfectly-placed topspin lob winner that sailed beyond reach of his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) opponent and landed on the outside of the baseline in the second game.
A delicate drop shot which made Alexander Zverev change direction so suddenly that the German player over-extended his right knee at a crucial point of the third set.
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Jannik Sinner of Italy stretches to play a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy returns the ball to Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Jannik Sinner of Italy embraces coaches and family after winning the men's singles final, defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany, at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy holds up the winners trophy after defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy plays a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Sure, there were plenty of the usual whizzing, missile-like baseline winners from Jannik Sinner in his four-set victory over Zverev in the Wimbledon final. He also showed off the new variety of his game, though — which came in handy when Zverev unleashed more power than he had used before against the top-ranked player.
The variety of shots were what Sinner’s two coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi, appreciated most from their player in Sunday's match.
Just like the Big Three and Big Four before them — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — Sinner, Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz (who is out injured) are continually evolving their games, Cahill noted.
“Alexander is now playing a different style of tennis against Jannik,” Cahill said. “We know Jannik is going to have to improve in certain areas to handle that type of game. Carlos is going to come back really strong, as well — as we all hope … You need to keep adding things to his game.
“We saw a lot of the stuff he doesn’t normally like doing, even in the final today: sliced backhands, a couple lobs, couple drop shots. Really stepping up when he needed to in the big moments.”
Sinner’s second consecutive Wimbledon victory matched the two titles that Alcaraz won before him at the All England Club and raised his overall tally to five Grand Slams — narrowing the gap to Alcaraz’s seven.
Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon this year due to a right wrist injury and it remains unclear if he’ll return in time for the year’s final Grand Slam at the U.S. Open.
Zverev’s performance in London leapfrogged him ahead of Alcaraz into the No. 2 spot when the new rankings were released Monday.
Zverev’s run on the grass followed his first major title at the French Open last month – after Sinner’s stunning second-round meltdown in Paris.
“Big, big respect to Sascha, because he’s doing something amazing. His game is growing and growing,” Sinner said, using Zverev’s nickname. “You have always someone who is pushing you to the limit. We hope that Carlos is coming back, as well, because tennis needs him.
“Having Novak still around, having all the young players coming, it’s really, really nice,” added Sinner, who beat the 39-year-old Djokovic in the semifinals. “At the same time, you always need to work hard.”
Sinner twice had to come back from a set down in a five-set marathon against Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round — when he also had to deal with blood seeping through his shoe due to a toenail issue.
He didn’t lose another set until Zverev unleashed a barrage of serves at up to 139 mph (224 kph) and backed those up with huge forehands to the corners.
Sinner knew he had a challenge to face when the first-set tiebreaker was decided by an inside-out forehand winner from Zverev.
So did Sinner’s mom, Siglinde, who couldn’t bare to watch some of the more tense moments on Centre Court.
“My mom, I see her, she left the stadium a couple of times,” Sinner said on court during his victory speech, glancing over after she had returned in time for the trophy ceremony. “It’s not easy.”
Amid stifling heat and humidity in Paris in late May, Sinner had his 30-match winning streak ended after coming within one game of a straight-set victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who was ranked No. 56.
Sinner went in for medical exams in Milan after the Paris defeat and acknowledged during Wimbledon that doctors discovered what was bothering him — without revealing the details.
“His medical records are his medical records. We won’t speak about any of that,” Cahill said. “But it’s up to us to make some changes, to do some little things differently.”
Sinner now leaves the court often between sets to refresh himself, change his shirt and get a moment of air-conditioning. During another heat wave the week before Wimbledon began, he used an ice vest to cool down.
“Look, he’s a redhead that lives in the north of Italy, that grew up in the snow and the Alps. Hot weather is a little bit different for him than it is for most people,” Cahill said.
“The more time he spends in the heat, the better he’s going to be at it,” Cahill added. “We might even make some changes to the preseason, chasing the sun a little bit more, getting him more acclimatized to playing in these types of conditions.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Jannik Sinner of Italy stretches to play a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy returns the ball to Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Jannik Sinner of Italy embraces coaches and family after winning the men's singles final, defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany, at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy holds up the winners trophy after defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Jannik Sinner of Italy plays a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.
The latest exchange was sparked by an Iranian attack on a container ship on Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for international oil and gas over which Iran has asserted control since the United States and Israel started the war on Feb. 28.
Iran says it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with an interim peace deal reached last month. The U.S. disputes that, citing international law on freedom of navigation, and has tried to establish an alternative route outside of Iranian control.
Iran and the U.S. are nearly halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate a permanent end to the war and an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Instead, a series of attacks over the strait have raised fears of a return to all-out war and further disruption to the global economy.
“A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.
Oil prices jumped nearly 5% on Monday before falling back. U.S. benchmark crude, which had risen to nearly $120 a barrel at the height of the war, was trading at around $72.92. Markets were mixed.
The U.S. military’s Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,” Central Command said. “Iran does not control it.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for the strait to be open, as it was before the war. “Freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected America's statement.
“The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the Guard said.
Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country.
In Jordan, the kingdom's military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage.” Jordan also hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.
In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes in the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, on a coast of the Gulf of Oman.
The attacks continued hours after the U.S. ended its strikes — again raising the possibility of Gulf Arab states retaliating against Iran. There were unclaimed attacks on Iran on Thursday as well.
Meanwhile, a base belonging to the armed wing of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region came under drone attack on Monday. Rebaz Sharifi, a local commander, said the strikes targeted a base, without giving details on casualties or damage.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. Iran supports a number of powerful militias in Iraq.
Early on Sunday, the U.S. military said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps and communication equipment — a far-heavier set of attacks than in two previous rounds of strikes in the last week.
“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” U.S. President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it.
Sunday's attacks stretched to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and even Oman — which shares the strait with Iran. Oman, which long has been an interlocutor between Tehran and the West, summoned an Iranian diplomat to criticize the attack.
Iran described the strait as closed, while the U.S. military and Trump asserted it remained open.
Iran’s chokehold on the strait has loosened as the U.S. military supports vessels moving along a southern route hugging the coastline of Oman. That new route has angered Iran, which has launched repeated attacks on ships using it.
Traffic through the Oman route dropped over the weekend “to minimal levels, indicating that operators continue to prioritize perceived security over more direct transit options,” the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the Middle East.
“Considering the memorandum of understanding’s fourteen clauses, the Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its various components,” Baghaei told journalists Monday.
Baghaei also said Iran wouldn't agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian nuclear sites bombed in 2025 by the U.S., where Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed still to be.
Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.
A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in public since the war began. On Saturday, he vowed to avenge the killing of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the U.S. and Israeli strikes that sparked the war.
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
A woman stands at the water's edge along the Strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises in the background following an explosion, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
A group of people stands in shallow water as a cargo ship appears anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Commercial vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
