It could only be heard in the quiet before a serve. An unmistakable drumbeat, the bass reverberating to a rhythm throughout the 162 minutes it took for Jannik Sinner to win his third grand slam title. This one was in straight sets, over the willing but outmatched Alexander Zverev.
Where the sound was coming from, nobody could say. It had the unhtz of techno, and there had been a particularly loud set pumping out of the party court in Melbourne Park an hour before the final began. But that music was scheduled to end, like all the other attractions, making way for the Australian Open’s traditional Sunday-night tennis climax.
