Australian Open: Giants killer Jannik Sinner beats Daniil Medvedev to win men’s final

Italian Jannik Sinner earned his first Grand Slam title the hard way, coming from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final.

Sinner, 22, prevailed 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in 3 hours, 44 minutes, to become the third Italian man to win a major.

The others: Nicola Pietrangeli, who won the French Open in 1959 and 1960, and Adriano Panatta, the 1976 French Open champ.

Sinner also became the eighth man to win a Slam final from two sets down in the Open Era (since 1968), and the second at the Australian Open. Medvedev also lost from two sets up at the Australian Open in 2022 to Rafael Nadal.

Sinner didn’t drop a set in his first five matches and then didn’t face a break point in his four-set semifinal win over 10-time Australian Open champ Novak Djokovic.

Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, became the first player to spend more than 24 hours on the court in a single Grand Slam run. He broke the record of 23 hours, 39 minutes, set by Carlos Alcaraz en route to the 2022 U.S. Open title.

Once pushed to a deciding set, Medvedev was bidding to become the first man to win a major having played four five-set matches.