Defending champion Jannik Sinner will look to keep his crown against Alexander Zverev on Sunday.

The World No.1 and World No.2 meet in the Australian Open final in a blockbuster showdown between tennis’ two best players.

Sinner and Zverev will both be oozing confidence ahead of their clash, both have dominated Melbourne since they arrived just two weeks ago.

The pair have dropped just two seats across the six matches en route to the final and have looked flawless as they both look to lift the trophy on Sunday.

Sinner will step on to Rod Laver Arena on a 20-match winning streak, a run that has seen him cement himself as the best player, a feat that is also helped by the two majors he won in 2024.

Although, Zverev will not play the Italian as an underdog in his mind, the German holds a 4-2 lead in their head-to-head.

It is also the 27-year-old who has won their last two hard-court matches at Grand Slams, both at the US Open in 2021 and 2023.

The pair’s clashes have also not always been cordial, Sinner and Zverev have enjoyed a tense relationship in the past with questions of respect being asked of each other.

The first display of this rivalry came in 2020 when the Italian blasted Zverev for making excuses after he beat him in the fourth round of the French Open.

The three-time Grand Slam finalist said after his match he did not feel well before his clash with Sinner, a claim that the 23-year-old did not take well.

“I respect him a lot because he’s won more than me, he’s got more experience on the circuit, and he’s a great player,” Sinner told Corriere.

“However, I do not respect his statements after his defeat to me at Roland Garros. He contradicted himself a lot. He said he had a fever, but in the third and fourth sets, he ran more than me.”

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The two-time major champion even went as far as to cite Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in his criticism of Zverev, claiming the the legendary figures would never make excuses.

“It seems to me that he was looking for an excuse after his defeat,” Sinner added. “Federer or Nadal, for example, would never have said such things.”

While Zverev has enjoyed huge success in tennis from winning Olympic Gold at Tokyo 2020 or winning two ATP finals in 2018 and 2021, the German is missing a Grand Slam.

It was in 2020 he surrendered a lead in that heartbreaking US Open final loss to Dominic Thiem in five brutal sets and it was last year when he again lost a lead in his French Open final loss to Carlos Alcaraz.

Despite being several years older than both Alcaraz and Sinner, the 27-year-old is aware that he lags behind them due to the lack of his majors.

To be able to compete with Carlos and with Jannik. That’s more on my mind,” Zverev said his goal was for 2025.

The German will now have that opportunity and essentially complete his tennis career by defeating Sinner and winning the first Grand Slam of his career.

Rod Laver Arena awaits a huge showdown between the World No.1 and No.2 on Sunday and everyone will be watching.