Jannik Sinner: Better than ever but still a lot to conquer
Jannik Sinner has been playing the best tennis of his life at the ATP Finals in Turin this week, good enough to be seen as a soon-to-be No 1 by his peers
Jannik Sinner at the 2023 ATP Finals in Turin
Jannik Sinner had these words of wisdom during an hilarious response about his new fame in his home country, Italy, Saturday. ”The only issue is that I have red hair, so it’s easy to recognise me, things change when I have a cap on,” he said. Then after Sinner added this meaningful sentence: “I am a normal boy. Or man… Getting to a man now.”
Switching from boy to man at 22 years of age, Sinner has also switched from big hope on the ATP Tour to one of the men-to-beat by the end of the 2023 season. The Italian put together a near-perfect week at the ATP Finals, navigating round-robin play undefeated before falling to world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the ATP Finals championship match on Sunday in front of his home crowd.
Earlier in the week, he defeated the Serb in an acclaimed masterpiece broadcasted live on public television in prime time. Sinner has became Italy’s weekly phenomenon, transforming the Pala Alpitour arena into a meeting point for fluorescent orange shirts worn by his “carota” fans this week.
Sinner’s crazy recent stats
In Sinner’s journey to greatness, Daniil Medvedev and his team are the best-placed to attest how the Italian has improved this season. Up until 10 weeks ago, Sinner had never beaten the Russian in six matches – including a tough loss in the Miami final this year, the sort of match that compounded doubts on Sinner’s ability to get to the next level, three years after his breakthrough on the Tour. He’s now on a three-match winning streak over the Russian after the Beijing final, the Shanghai final and the semi-finals in Turin this week.
“How I picture Sinner tonight is that he is an armoured door,” Gilles Cervara, Medvedev’s French coach, told Tennis Majors on Saturday. “You can have a bazooka, dynamite or a battering ram, all that will leave is a scratch. Daniil tried with all the tools possible, but Sinner’s peak point was higher than Daniil’s peak point. Daniil had to take incredible risks to win the points and it pushed him to the error. To obtain a provoked mistake from Sinner this week has been very difficult, almost impossible. Daniil committed to the maximum in his aggressiveness, but you have to be perfect in this game plan to beat this version of Sinner.”
On his Instagram channel dedicated to the Tour, Patrick Mouratoglou introduced Sinner as “the modern version of Agassi”. “His easy power, his position close to the line, his aggressiveness, his intention on second serve makes him such a player”.
If Medvedev was more aggressive than ever against Sinner, it’s because he knew he could lose with the game plan that makes him generally the most efficient. That’s what happened in Vienna. Sinner did go more often to the net than usual in Asia; that’s a gameplan that can be efficient against Medvedev. But as seen in Austria, the longer the rallies lasted, the more often Sinner prevailed. Sinner is now so solid and brave on important moments that he defeated Djokovic in the round robin thanks to the combination of these qualities.
“Even me, I’m surprised” — Sinner’s coach
“Even me, I’m surprised, said Sinner’s coach, Simone Vagnozzi. “At the end of the second set, when Daniil equalized, the match was following a new path and Jannik upgraded his level delivering a marvelous effort.”
Stats provided by Tennis Data Innovations and highlighted by TennisViz for Tennis Majors show that Sinner increased his level by 5 to 10 percent in Turin compared to the rest of the season. His backhand quality has been consistent (8.1 out of 10), but the rest (apart from the return, keep in mind the huge serve quality of the contenders and the sped of the court) illustrates his way to the next level : 9 (against 8.6) for the forehand, 8.7 (against 8) for the serve, a gain of 5% of points won from a defensive position (to 39.5%), a gain of 4,7% of conversion in the attacking situations (73.8%).
The landscape looks so ominous that Sinner’s rivals were ultra-generous this week on how far this level could take the Italian. “If he plays like this, like he played last weeks, all the time, he’s going to have Slams and be No 1,” Medvedev said. “Then it comes to how many weeks, how many Slams, stuff like this. The question is how often is he going to ride it and, when he’s not on the wave, how good he plays. Sometimes this way ends.”
Alcaraz, whom Sinner’s game has been a nightmare since the beginning, even when the Spaniard plays at his best, already announced that he would be a contender for the tops in 2024. “Absolutely, I have no doubts about it,” the Spaniard said in Turin. “He is one of the guys who are able to win a Grand Slam. I think he’s going to reach the No 1 in 2024 or he’s going to give himself the chance to reach the No 1. That’s my prediction.”
Sinner’s forecasts for 2024: Work, work, work
Sinner has no other plan than continuing his best effort to reach the higher levels. One should think that the World No 4 has still a lot to prove. He has so far won one ATP Masters 1000 (Shanghai) and reached one Slam semi-final in his career (2023 Wimbledon), while Alcaraz and Medvedev are Slam winners and multiple 1000 champions.
“I really see it like a day-by-day process,” Sinner said in Italian. “Next year? Honestly who can say what it will be, I can’t know. I’ll have to keep going on what was great this season, with a lot of semis, finals, more ups than downs. But I didn’t play that well at Slams. Nothing will be easy no matter what.”
“On the bike, he already asked me what he could do better for the final,” his coach revealed. “This is his main strength. He is genuinely and hugely dedicated to grow more. There is no one way to explain where he is at the moment. He has progressed in all the aspects, tactical, technical, physical… Mental? Well in tennis, it goes straight away you know. Every great champion covers all the field. I can see a room for improvement in many aspects.”
Sinner’s new tools
Earlier this week, Sinner, who had been considered as fragile when it came to the big occasions, admitted that he has made a dedicated effort on the mental side by mapping his brain reactions.
Reflecting on the pre-season for 2024, Sinner also forecasted a heavy workload to fulfill his potential. “The physical part will be key. We play intense tennis all season long. The body held well but I can improve. On the tennis side, I have a lot of work. I think about the serve, the net approach and the slice backhand. I threw two of them (slices) in the background today. I’m still far from what I want to become.”
Son of a chef, Vagnozzi said the meal was almost ready. “Shaping such a player is like when you make tomato sauce. The first try will be a rough draft. Then you learn how to add salt, to find better raw products, to leverage with the basil, and then of course make sure the mixture is not overloaded.” Sinner has been al dente all week long and it’s all about surfing the wave as long as possible.
