Since the best days of Novak Djokovic, the men’s circuit had not seen such a dominant leader as Jannik Sinner. The Italian was a prophet in his own land – the last master to win at home was Andy Murray in 2016 – and put the crowd at the Inalpi Arena on its feet on Sunday as he became the first local tennis player to be crowned ATP master.
Sinner, victorious by a score of 6-4, 6-4, the same result as the ’round robin’, began to take control of the final with the first break in the seventh game. He conceded only one break point to his opponent when he was serving for the first set. He neutralised it with his serve.
In the continuation, the script was repeated, although the ‘break’ came earlier, in the fifth round. The crowd went wild because their player was responding with a sublime performance. He even allowed himself the luxury of throwing drop shots.
Jannik has made good all the years that his federation has invested in the racket sport, hosting a Masters 1000 such as the one in Rome, the Next Gen Finals in Milan and in the last four seasons the Masters tournament in Turin. Jannik’s popularity at an individual level is already greater than that of any footballer.
The player from San Candido is the undisputed number one in 2024: more points (11,830), more titles (8), more matches won in total (70), more victories on hard courts (50) and more victories in head-to-heads against the top ten (17).
US Open final
Taylor Fritz was the guest of honor at the Italian party. The American tried, relying on his enormous service, but the result was the same as in the US Open final and in the group stage in Turin: Sinner won without dropping a set.
To find the last time a champion had won without losing a single set, you have to go back to Ivan Lendl in 1986. He is the first master born in the 21st century and at 23 years of age he threatens to remain at the top of tennis for a long time. He is 3,915 points ahead of Alexander Zverev, his closest rival in the rankings, and 4,820 ahead of Carlos Alcaraz, with whom he is set to be the rivalry of the future.
Alcaraz was precisely Jannik’s last executioner, in a sequence of 26 matches won out of the last 27. The only asterisk was the final in Beijing with Carlitos. Fritz, who had sprung a surprise in the semi-final with Zverev, could not cope with the shots of his executioner that seemed like missiles on the GreenSet surface.
Lesson from the past
The new master had learned the lesson from last year’s edition when he reached the final unbeaten and having overcome Djokovic in the round robin. In the final, gripped by the pressure of supporters who saw him as the favourite, he could barely win six games. He then took his revenge in the Davis Cup. Jannik, who has been based in Monte Carlo since his junior days, is disturbed by nothing and no one.
Not even the positive test for clostebol at Indian Wells and the subsequent appeal by WADA, which is seeking a one or two-year suspension, has kept him out of the spotlight. In the meantime, he fired his physical trainer, Umberto Ferrara, and physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi, who were singled out for the case of the involuntary positive. In their place, he surrounded himself with Djokovic’s hard core: Marco Panichi and Ulises Badio.
The Italian tennis party ended with the president of the circuit, Andrea Gaudenzi, announcing that the ATP Finals will remain in Sinner’s country until 2030. Turin has one more year left and then Milan is in line to take over.
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