2026 Wimbledon SF Recap, Is Zverev on Sincaraz's Level? | Something Major | EP 194

**Sam** (0:00)
Dude, my wife is so weird, she's up on the roof right now.

**John Isner** (0:06)
Coming up on Something Major, we're gonna give you a semi-final recap of the men's and the women's event at Wimbledon. Let's get this going. Oh, let me start that over. Sorry.
My bad. All right. Here we go. The Alcaraz part, I missed that. Here we go. Coming up on Something Major, Sam, stop laughing. We're gonna give you a semi-final recap of the gentlemen's and the ladies' semi-finals, plus a bonus Carlos Alcaraz update. Let's get it going.

**Sam** (0:35)
Jack, John, Stevie and Sam got close a few times, never won a slam, nothing major.

**John Isner** (0:41)
All right. Welcome back to Something Major. John Isner here. I'm back. I missed the last episode, Sam and Cal Ripken. You guys did, of course, did a great job holding it down with Sam and Stevie and Charlie Fox and the team at CIF Creative.
Semi-finals just concluded.
And especially just right now on the men's side, two straightforward matches. Let's start with the big one. Sinner versus Novak, probably the greatest player of all time. Sam, you're over there doing coverage for this match. Going into this one, Sinner's likelihood to win was 55%, which made it seem like this was almost a pick-em, wasn't the case at all. What did you see out of Sinner today? And did you feel like Novak was just flat or was Sinner just flat out too good?

**Sam** (1:30)
I was a little surprised that Sinner was only a 55% favorite in this one. I would have had him in more like a 65, I feel like, you know, two-thirds odds to win it.
Look, when the draw came out, everyone wanted this matchup and it's exactly what we got. Novak necessarily, he didn't look tired to me.
It's just like anytime he hits a good ball, Sinner is able to absorb the pace and redirect it and do whatever he wants with it. He can attack off both sides. Novak would hit a deep ball to the center backhand, center of plant on the left foot, even a ball that Novak hits two feet from the line, stay down and either hit it cross court or down the line. Sinner has looked up until this point, Sinner I feel like was kind of playing meh for Sinner standards up through four matches. That all changed today. That was like Sinner from the spring when he won all the Masters Series, pretty much flawless, like, you know, executed on both sides, served great. And yet Novak never was able to get his claws or his teeth into this match.

**John Isner** (2:31)
Yeah. I mean, Sinner was fantastic. He was an amazing on serve, didn't have a double fall in the match, had 12 or 14 aces, something like that. Stevie, this was the Sinner that we're accustomed to seeing.

**Sam** (2:42)
Right?

**John Isner** (2:43)
And I think, Sam, you hit the, you said it perfectly. He wasn't playing that great prior to this match. This for sure was his best match to the tournament. What do you think about it, Stevie?

**Stevie** (2:51)
Yeah, absolutely. This was Sinner's great, best match to the tournament so far. I mean, nobody expected that the toughest Serbian he would play would be in round one 12 days ago in Kacimanovich in five sets. I mean, this was, this was, this was straightforward. Novak didn't seem like he could do anything, right? Like, and that's just weird to see, but understandable with the match that he had with Felix a couple of days prior. But this looked like Sinner back to where Sinner has played. The movement's incredible. I mean, the way he's able to slide into his backhands on the grass, stop on a dime, be completely in control of his body at all times. It looks like he's doing what Novak did in his, like it just felt like it was somewhat of a mirror image of how well Novak is able to move on the grass. Sinner's now just kind of taken over that mantle. He's never at a position. He just looks so comfortable out there and there was nothing Novak could do from the ground today, just nothing.

**Sam** (3:45)
John, let me ask you a question. Do you think, do you feel like they play a first set and Novak actually plays all right? I almost feel like Novak looks a little like defeated in his face. Like, I lose that first set 6-4, I actually play all right, but like, I'm not, how am I gonna win three sets against this guy? I don't know if he actually, after losing the first set, I don't actually know if Novak believes that he can win as great as he is, three sets against Sinner in that moment.