Mumbai, July 16 -- Several layers could be peeled to lay bare the significance of Jannik Sinner landing the biggest cherry of his four-fruit heavy Grand Slam basket. Quite simply, as his coach Darren Cahill put it, "he needed the win" on Sunday. Not just because of what happened five Sundays ago, and how quickly Sinner overcame the trauma of Paris for the triumph in London. Or because Sinner finally made his presence felt in modern tennis' most riveting rivalry that had frozen towards a red-hot Carlos Alcaraz through their past five meetings. But also because, and perhaps more crucially in the career path that would define the legacy of the Italian, it has established his rising prowess as an all-court champion. Even before the 23-year-old scaled unrivalled ascendancy at the top of the world rankings and underlined his Grand Slam winning pedigree at the Australian Open in 2024, his record on hard courts was pretty solid. It's the natural surfaces that would often halt his march. Alcaraz, meanwhile, was in the fast lane, no matter the surface. In the 2024 French Open that followed Sinner's maiden major, the Spaniard became the youngest man to win Slams across all three surfaces at 21. Alcaraz was an all-court wizard. Sinner a hard-court bully. A year on, Sinner may still be that, but he's no longer just that. By adding the 2024 US Open and 2025 Wimbledon titles while also making the final of the 2025 French Open, Sinner has taken only six Slams to complete the full set of finals since his first at the 2024 Australian Open. It's the shortest gap between entering a first final and all four across the three surfaces, according to the International Tennis Federation. Jim Courier, the previous holder of the record, got there in his 9th appearance. Roger Federer in his 11th, Novak Djokovic 18th and Rafael Nadal 20th. Alcaraz is yet to enter the Australian Open final. Someone else is in the fast lane now, in his progress on clay and grass. "Of course my favourite surface is hard court, and I won most of my titles there. But in my mind I also know that I can play well on other surfaces," Sinner said after his win over Alcaraz on Sunday. The current holder of the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, lest we forget, was one point away from also winning the French Open. "He never played a better clay-court match than what he played there (in the final against Alcaraz). So, he knew he was improving as a tennis player," Cahill said. Sinner said he did not feel like he was up there physically to tackle the rigours of competing for titles on clay until this year. On grass, he always felt he could do well. "In the beginning of my career, I knew I could potentially play well here (grass) because my groundstrokes are quite flat and the ball goes through," he said. The groundstrokes went through alright on Sunday. Sinner at the baseline is mechanically clinical, but against Alcaraz he even showed the courage to mix things up. Sinner tried the drop shot early against a serial craftsman, and even moved forward to the net when he felt Alcaraz was on the backfoot in the rally. It carried mixed success, but showed his willingness to adjust to the demands of the surface and the game style of the opponent. That opponent, incidentally, is whose matches Sinner watches more than anyone else's on the tour, as Cahill revealed. This rivalry is pushing two twenty-somethings to the limit, while also aiding their own development. "He's fascinated by Carlos's growth and it drives him," Cahill said. "He's pushing us as coaches to make sure he's improving too." This season has shown how much he is improving playing on surfaces on which Alcaraz's game fascinates him. It's equally fascinating how much Sinner himself thinks about getting better in his tennis. Moments after living his dream of lifting the Wimbledon trophy, the Italian was already bringing up facets of the game in which he still has some catching up to do with Alcaraz. "I felt like he was doing a couple of things better than I did. So that's something where we will work on, and prepare ourselves. Because he's going to come for us again," he said. For now, though, what's come to him is a first Wimbledon trophy, and a first non-hard court Slam....