“There wasn’t much I could do” – Sinner looking ominous at ATP Finals with crowd, serve on fire
Jannik Sinner is looking ominous at the ATP Finals in Turin this week with the Italian crowd behind him and a newly improved serve firing on all cylinders
Jannik Sinner ATP Finals 2023 Zuma / Panoramic
Home favourite Jannik Sinner has opened his account at the Nitto ATP Finals, defeating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 in Turin on Sunday to move into pole position in the Green Group on day one.
The Italian’s victory was built on a dominant serving performance, and supported by a raucous crowd that sang and chanted Sinner’s name, sticking with him on every point.
After the match, Tsitsipas was honest about the task he faced on court against Sinner:
“There wasn’t much I could do,” the world No 6 said. “I’m not the Elastic Girl from the superheroes to be behind these balls.”
Serve experimentation comes right for Sinner
A mark of the Big Three across the course of the past decade has been their ability to constantly iterate and improve their games, tweaking small details to continually become better tennis players.
This time last year, Jannik Sinner’s serve was his weakness. He’d been unable to settle on a stance, switching between platform and pinpoint and lacking rhythm. Now, with numerous changes over the past 12 months, the Italian’s serve is a huge strength.
Across the course of 10 service games against Tsitsipas, Sinner lost a total of 10 service points. At 41/51 points, the Italian won 80 percent of service points overall, landing 71 percent of first serves, making nine aces, and not facing a single break point across the course of the match.
“He definitely has improved his serve, and he showed it today on the court. There wasn’t much I could do. I was trying to guess sometimes,” Tsitsipas remarked after the match.
“He serves really close to the lines, to the corners. I’m not the Elastic Girl from the superheroes to be behind these balls. I tried my best, and he played a very good quality match from his side.
“I think today, maybe if he was aiming for improvements, today those improvements were definitely exposed and shown on the court. He definitely had overall a big improvement in his game.”
Crowd rallies behind Sinner in resurgence of Italian tennis
Tennis has always been a popular sport in Italy, but the Turin crowd today showed that with Jannik Sinner at its fore, Italian tennis is stronger than ever.
“I think generally the crowd today was really, really nice. They were pushing me, not only when I won the point but also when I lost the point. I think the ability to handle this kind of thing, but also not playing only for me but also for the fans and everything, I think it’s a great balance,” Sinner said following his victory.
“It’s nice to see. It means that the people really care about not only me, but I think for the tennis in general. I feel like it grows a little bit faster now. Before was a lot of only one sport in Italy. Now it’s raising the tennis also history a little bit. It’s nice to be part of this.”
Sinner, who is the highest ranked Italian man in history, sitting at No 4 in the world currently, will do wonders for the popularity of tennis if he can win the Nitto ATP Finals in his home country this week.
The Italian has made the best possible start with a straight sets win over Tsitsipas, but will face the ominous challenge of an in-form Novak Djokovic in a few days time, which will be the real test of his title credential in Turin this week.
