MELBOURNE – After 283 points, five sets and three hours and 44 minutes of running in the Australian Open final, only this divided the two men. One point. Daniil Medvedev won 141, Jannik Sinner 142. The line between history and heartbreak is thinner than the lines they hit.

On an exhausting night which was loud and riveting, it was the Italian with the modesty of a choir boy and the lean sinew of a distance runner who wrote a brave history for himself. Sinner, 22, did not merely win his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne, he earned it. His nerve was evaluated, his tactics examined, his composure investigated. His prize for passing every test was a trophy he would not let go of.