CENTRE COURT — Ninety-three minutes into the Wimbledon men’s final and the mind starts to wander. Shrek would have finished by now, and there’s every chance this runs longer than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The extended edition.
Where are Frodo and Sam an hour and a half into their journey? Rivendell is my guess, and with time to find out, it turns out the Council of Elrond would indeed have just concluded.
Just past the two-hour mark and opposite the media section on Centre Court the seats of both the Prince of Wales and Prince George remain vacant.
Everyone deserves a break, especially now the sun is beating down on the Royal Box, and the princes have quite possibly spent the second set with the salt-and-pepper shakers out over afternoon tea, pondering Thomas Tuchel’s tactics come Wednesday.
A penny for the princes’ thoughts of this final (Photo: Getty)Two hours and 54 minutes marks the first break of serve, in the third set, when Jannik Sinner seizes the initiative against Alexander Zverev. Meanwhile, over in Middle Earth, the fellowship are travelling down the River Anduin. Sean Bean’s screen time is almost up.
After three hours and 46 minutes, the credits are rolling on the movie in my mind and this Wimbledon final has just finished, Sinner defending his title to deny Zverev back-to-back grand slams.
Long? Yes. High-quality? Sure. Competitive? Definitely. But entertaining it was not. There were 32 aces, while an average rally length of 3.50 was the shortest since 2017 and second-shortest since 2010.
It was more 1990s than 2010s, the latter decade having spoiled us, with Sir Andy Murray’s final against Novak Djokovic in 2013 an epic 6.26 shots in terms of average rally length.
One does not simply define a classic by this statistic, but it helps separate the longer matches from those that are epic in length and epic in nature. Sunday’s final was no epic, and few beyond Sinner will remember this in the years to come.
One break point in two hours, 38 minutes. Two tie-breaks split so far. Do people actually enjoy this?#Wimbledon
— James Gray (@jamesgraysport) July 12, 2026Sinner and Zverev are though not in the business of entertainment but sport and they are not required to get the crowd off their feet, which happened a mere handful of times. The only heart-stopping point came late in the fourth, which was also when Zverev and Sinner first really engaged with this crowd.
This is not their problem to bear – but it is a concern for the sport. Two serve-bots in a mechanical match-up showed that while Wimbledon thrives on perfection, this tournament’s greatest trait does not translate well when its players follow suit.
Sinner himself is a ChatGPT prompt made with a 3D printer. The Big Three of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were arguably never this good – with Djokovic this week conceding he is no longer the sport’s best returner (Sinner is) – but that is what made them greater and more relatable.
It is harsh to criticise Sinner for simply being too good, but while he remains the world No 1, the chasing pack recognise only a flawless match – or the heat – can stop this unflappable Italian.
By comparison, women’s tennis is unpredictable and subsequently more exciting. The gulf in quality is smaller across the top-ranked players, and that is why the No 17 and 31 seeds have won here in recent years, so too the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova and on Saturday No 9 seed Linda Noskova.
The women’s field also boasts more personalities. Naomi Osaka’s outfits got Wimbledon talking, Coco Gauff is among those appealing to the TikTok generation with 1.1m followers on that platform alone, while the Philippines’ 21-year-old Alexandra Eala showed she is a star in the making.
In a sport fighting for eyeballs, the men’s final was a poor advert, and as a whole, the tournament missed Carlos Alcaraz, with a wrist injury keeping the two-time champion out of Wimbledon, as it did the French Open.
Wimbledon missed Carlos Alcaraz (Photo: Getty)He remains on course to return in time for the US Open, but too late to save a Wimbledon crying out for characters and stories.
The Spaniard lights up Centre Court like no other player on the men’s side, and his absence was felt every time the order of play was released and the wow factor was lacking.
In that regard, Djokovic did the heavy lifting, but as the Serbian nears retirement – and with Serena Williams’ return probably brief – only Alcaraz has the aura to thrill this Centre Court crowd dozens of times per match.
And therein lies the greater problem for men’s tennis. One man alone cannot carry this burden, it requires a group – a fellowship, if you will – but with Sinner and Zverev a boring top two and the next generation still forging their paths, it could be years before the men’s game truly entertains us again.
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