Mumbai: Because the begin of final yr, Jannik Sinner has turned up for 64 matches on arduous courts and walked out on the dropping facet simply thrice. Two of these defeats have come towards Carlos Alcaraz.
Italy’s Jannik Sinner defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 within the males’s singles Australian Open. (AFP)
The final man to beat the Italian on arduous courts in Grand Slams was Alexander Zverev, going again 21 matches and one-and-a-half years. The identical participant appeared relatively clueless in stopping the Sinner steamroller, which has now ramped via three hard-court Majors, within the Australian Open last on Sunday.
Two stats and information that not solely spotlight the world No.1’s unbelievable effectivity on probably the most featured courts on the tour, but in addition his fast evolution.
On present look and type, Sinner’s hard-court dominance will take some stopping. What’s additionally clear, nevertheless, is that he has some catching as much as do on the opposite surfaces.
It’s loads like his fellow world No.1 on the ladies’s tour — every of Aryna Sabalenka’s three Slams have come on arduous courts. It’s additionally the place his greatest rival on the boys’s tour has an edge — four-time Slam champion Alcaraz is a French Open, Wimbledon and US Open winner. Flaunting a finer all-court recreation that blends into the numerous calls for of arduous, clay and grass, the 21-year-old is a extra full participant, even when not as persistently superior as his 23-year-old rival. That’s what Sinner is after.
“For sure, it’s one thing I think about, no,” Sinner stated after his triumph in Melbourne. “You have to be a complete player, not only on one surface but on also the other two.
“On hard courts I feel more comfortable, as you can see. But I take that as a positive,” he added. “It’s exactly that what I like; the difficulties trying to understand where I can improve. Hopefully I can show that when the season arrives.”
Earlier than the “when” there may additionally be an “if”. Whether or not the clay season arrives for Sinner may also probably rely on his doping case listening to on the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport in April. Maintaining that uncertainty apart, there’s no obvious motive why Sinner, with the form of recreation and mindset he carries, can’t translate his hard-court success into the purple grime and grassy lawns.
For starters, lopsided as his hard-court numbers are (17 of this 19 ATP titles have come on it), his performances on the opposite two aren’t unhealthy by any stretch. To go along with a 79.9 win proportion on arduous courts, he has 71.1 proportion on clay and 70 on grass. However a overwhelming majority of his huge titles have come on arduous courts, and that’s the place some defeats — to Emil Ruusuvuori (2023 ATP ‘s-Hertogenbosch, grass) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (2024 Monte Carlo, clay), for example — stand out on other surfaces.
Last season, after exits in the fourth and second round in the previous years, the Italian made the semi-finals of the French Open before losing to eventual champion Alcaraz in five sets. At Wimbledon, he’s made two quarter-finals (2022, 2024) and one semi-final (2023), twice working into Novak Djokovic whereas happening to Daniil Medvedev final yr.
“I believe last year was not a bad season at all on clay and grass,” Sinner stated. “I can do better, yes… For sure, we are aiming to get into this rhythm and game style. Because it is different, especially on grass, the movement.”
That motion, amongst Sinner’s greatest strengths, is sublimely clean on the unreal courts. On pure clay, the place the ball kicks greater and travels slower, it “may be a little bit more difficult”, as Simone Vagnozzi, one in every of his coaches, put it in Melbourne. Shifting on to grass, a floor that Sinner admitted is probably the most alien to him having not performed any junior tennis on it, once more calls for tweaks in footwork and motion.
An indication that Sinner is getting higher at discovering his ft on these surfaces, particularly on grass, got here final yr. He received the ATP Halle Open heading into Wimbledon the place, in line with Vagnozzi, he was “not 100 percent” the day he misplaced to Medvedev.
“I’m still young. I still have time to adjust,” stated Sinner.
That’s the largest asset. In all these tall issues that he has already achieved, it’s straightforward to overlook Sinner remains to be 23. It’s solely been a few years that the Italian has been a critical contender in Slams. Djokovic, whose recreation everybody, together with Sinner, believes his recreation model is mirrored, received his first Slam on the Australian Open in 2008. It took him three years so as to add a Wimbledon title to his tally, and eight to finish it with the French Open.
With the 24-time Slam champion, it was a query of when greater than if. One can’t assist however really feel the identical method about Sinner.
“I’m going to put a lot of energy in that, trying to find the right ways and hopefully go far also in the other Slams,” he stated.