At this rate, the only ones who can stop Jannik Sinner are the arbitrators in Lausanne. On a tennis court, he is untouchable.

On Sunday, Sinner swatted aside Alexander Zverev to defend his Australian Open title and win his third Grand Slam title. The world No1 did not face a single break point in his 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 victory and after the match his resigned opponent said: ‘You are the best player in the world by far. You are just too good.’

But before Sinner can launch further tilts at Grand Slam titles, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will rule, in April, on whether to issue a ban for two failed doping tests, after the initial decision to clear Sinner of any blame was appealed by World Anti-Doping. There is uncertainty there and worry but, as his coach Darren Cahill said: ‘He finds tennis matches to be his safe space. It became a home for him to step on a court.’

The 23-year-old Italian has certainly made himself at home here in Melbourne, a second title achieved with relative ease. The closest he has come to disaster was in the fourth round against Holger Rune when illness and heat combined to leave his limbs literally shaking. At one set all he faced a break point and won a 37-shot rally which almost brought him to his knees. He has never looked close to losing from that point onwards.

This was a crushing defeat for Zverev, who has now lost each of his three Grand Slam finals. He looked powerless on court and sounded powerless afterwards: ‘He’s in a different universe right now to anyone else.

‘I serve better than him, but that’s it. He does everything else better than me.’

As of yet, Sinner’s preeminence is restricted to hard courts. On the natural surfaces of clay and grass he is behind Carlos Alcaraz, the French Open and Wimbledon champion. If Sinner can overhaul his great rival on one or both of those surfaces then he could run up a serious total of Slams.

Zverev, 27, has played each of the Big Three and, comparing Sinner’s form, he paid him the ultimate compliment: ‘He’s very, very similar to Novak when he was at his best. They barely miss. They’re constantly on the baseline. They don’t give you any space. They don’t give you any time.’

A brief window of opportunity for Zverev arrived in the second set tiebreak. But at 4-4, Sinner struck a forehand which clipped the net and hopped over for a winner.

A huge stroke of luck at the perfect time. But, while there may not be a law of physics to justify this, I always feel the harder a ball is hit into the net tape the more likely it is to make its way over. To adapt the famous Gary Player quote, ‘The harder I hit it, the luckier I get’.

Zverev had actually won four of six previous meetings between these two but that dates back to Sinner’s early years on the tour. He has been a different animal since the back end of 2023.

His counter-attacking play has developed immensely. He slides on a hard court as if it is clay, or indeed the slopes where he was a junior champion skier, and that allows him to take balls others would defend and half-volley a whiplash forehand instead.

The difference in that forehand wing was profound. Zverev has a wonderful backhand but slightly awkward technique on the other side which makes it difficult for him to really rip through the ball.

The 6ft 6in German cut a woebegone figure at the end. Before the trophies were presented, Sinner comforted his defeated rival, putting his hands on his shoulders as Zverev’s eyes shone with tears.

‘He said I will definitely lift one of those trophies in my career,’ said Zverev. ‘I’m too good not to. That’s his words.

‘It was a difficult moment for me. For the third time seeing somebody lift the trophy and me standing next to that is difficult because there’s nothing more I want than to hold one of those trophies in my hands.’

The consensus is Zverev’s gameplan is too passive, too defensive to win the big titles. He could not be accused of that here, approaching the net 27 times and trying to hit through his forehand more than usual. But that is not his natural game and it showed, the forehand leaking errors and Sinner picking him off at the net.

To take the next step, Zverev must internalize those aggressive intentions – play like that throughout the tournament, rather than trying to shift his style in the final.

Until he can do that, he will be cursed by the most backhanded compliment in tennis. As he said himself: ‘I don’t want to end my career as the best player of all time to never win a Grand Slam.’