Alexander Zverev compared Jannik Sinner to prime Novak Djokovic after losing Sunday's Australian Open final, saying the Italian is in a "different universe" to his rivals.

Sinner beat Zverev 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena to defend his crown, making it three straight titles at hard-court grand slams.

Sinner has dominated the men's game since becoming world number one for the first time last June, winning 94% of his tour-level matches as the ATP's top-ranked player (47 wins, three losses).

That is the best win rate managed by any world number one since the rankings were first published in 1973, while no player has ever managed more victories through their first 50 matches as the world's top player (Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors also won 47).

Zverev was a distant second-best on Sunday, failing to bring up a single break point while facing 10, as the German also made 45 unforced errors to Sinner's 27.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Zverev conceded he struggled to compete with Sinner and compared the Italian's game to that of 24-time major champion Djokovic.

"He's very, very similar to Novak when he was at his best. They barely miss. They make you think you have to overhit all the time to have a chance in a rally against them," he said.

"It's very, very difficult to win a point from the back of the court against Novak and him. They're constantly on the baseline. 

"They don't give you any space. They don't give you any time. Right now he's too good for me. 

"I'll do everything I can to be able to compete with them and to lift the trophy, but today was nowhere near good enough."

Asked to quantify the gap between Sinner and the rest of the top 10, Zverev said: "On hard courts? The facts speak for themselves. He's won all the grand slams on hard courts since last year. 

"He's lost three matches on hard courts, right? Three or four, something like that. The facts speak for themselves. He's in a different universe right now to anyone else."

Sinner has now won 10 straight matches against fellow top-10 players, becoming the youngest player to achieve that feat since Rafael Nadal in 2008.

The Italian is, however, the first player in history to accomplish that with all 10 victories coming in straight sets.

Zverev beat Sinner in a five-set thriller at the 2023 US Open, but the German has been taken aback by the Italian's all-round improvement since that tournament.

"He serves better. He returns better. He hits his forehand better. He hits his backhand better. He moves better. He volleys better," Zverev said.

"There's nothing that he doesn't do better right now. I remember those matches. Before I always felt like once I was getting on top of the rally, I was winning most of those rallies. 

"Now it's like he's prime Novak. It's so difficult to go through him. I think he's just a much better tennis player, all-round, than he was back then."