Before the 24-year-old Italian arrived at the All England Club a fortnight ago, only nine men had mounted a successful defence of the singles title in the open era.

Earning a place on the roll call of back-to-back champions would put Sinner among elevated company, alongside Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz as one of the finest exponents of grass-court tennis in modern history. 

Yet the auspices were mixed for the returning champion. 

On a brutally hot day in Paris, a calamitous meltdown from two sets to love and 5-1 up against Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerúndolo in round two of the French Open had left Sinner smarting. It was his second successive grand slam disappointment of the season, following a semi-final loss to Djokovic at the Australian Open in January that had derailed his bid for a third straight title in Melbourne. Yet those defeats bookended a four-month period in which Sinner was untouchable, compiling a 30-match winning streak that brought five consecutive Masters 1000 titles. 

It was impossible to know which version of the Italian would turn up at Wimbledon, but he arrived there facing questions about his form and fitness that would have been unthinkable only a few weeks earlier.

There was pressure, too. Anything less than a successful title defence would have left Sinner in the curious position of being a dominant world No 1 without being the current holder of a major title. That Alcaraz, his chief rival, was absent through injury for a second consecutive grand slam event would only have accentuated the paradox.

Given the circumstances, Sinner could probably have lived without opening his defence against the redoubtable Miomir Kecmanovic, a solid former top-30 player who embodied a quiet but growing belief in the locker room that the top seed could be beaten. That sentiment doubtless hardened when Kecmanovic briefly threatened a seismic upset, taking a two sets to one lead against Sinner before falling in five.

Yet, despite scorching temperatures in south-west London throughout the first week, Sinner did not drop another set en route to the final. Once there, the defending champion delivered the perfect riposte to his doubters, earning his fifth grand slam title with a 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Alexander Zverev, the German second seed. 

The value of variety

After what happened in Paris, it was a tour de force of mental toughness, one that secured Sinner’s place in the modern pantheon of Centre Court greats. He now has a total of 100 match wins at the majors, where he is mopping up titles at the same rate as Djokovic, who likewise had five by the age of 24. Sinner also possesses an 80% win percentage on grass, something few would have predicted at the outset of his professional career, when he lost his first four matches on the surface (six from eight when qualifiers are included). 

A late developer who grew up in the Italian Dolomites, Sinner preferred skiing and football to tennis until his early teens. He has undeniably come a long way. But far enough to merit a place at the top table with McEnroe, Federer and company? That is another question. 

For all the undeniable excellence of his ball-striking and movement, for all his clinical mastery of the serve and return, the twin pillars of modern grass-court tennis, Sinner’s skillset is markedly different to that of his predecessors. What he does, he does with undeniable brilliance. His baseline game, which combines relentless aggression with virtually impenetrable defence, bears comparison with the best in history. Less apparent, however, is the variety of shot and powers of improvisation evident among other members of Wimbledon’s back-to-back club.

Laver is an obvious counterpoint. Like Sinner, the flame-haired Australian combined immense power off both wings with a destructive serve, weapons he famously deployed to hit his way out of trouble when things got tight. But it was with good reason that Laver was once introduced at WCT Tour events as “the man with the copper hair but a golden touch” – and it was not because he lacked finesse. As one might expect of the only man in history to complete the calendar year grand slam twice, the Queenslander was a complete player, as accomplished at the net as he was from the baseline, as capable of wielding the scalpel as dropping the hammer. For all his efforts to expand his arsenal, Sinner does not yet possess such variety.

It is not an isolated comparison; a similar versatility may be observed among others of Laver’s ilk. 

In an era when the lawns of the All England Club played significantly faster, making serve-and-volley tennis de rigueur, Borg reimagined his baseline game to spectacularly successful effect. The enigmatic Swede was neither a naturally dominant server nor a willing volleyer. But each year, he would retreat to the Cumberland Club in north-west London to hone his grass-court skills, eventually arriving in SW19 with a beefed-up delivery that he would gamely follow into the forecourt. Borg’s unrivalled athleticism – and the vagaries of a surface on which even a bad volley would stay low enough to be effective – more than made up for any technical shortcomings. Allied with a peerless return, a teak-tough mentality, and some of the best passing shots the game has ever seen, Borg’s adaptability earned him five straight titles.

So a talent for tailoring style to circumstance, for being able to force things from the net or mix it from the backcourt, has been a hallmark of all the great modern Wimbledon champions, even if some have inclined more towards one approach than another. Becker and Sampras reaped the rewards of their huge serves at the net. Federer and Djokovic won 15 titles between them, predominantly from the back of the court. But champions have a habit of finding a way, and each could do things differently when occasion demanded. Becker could hang with Ivan Lendl from the baseline, just as Sampras could live with Andre Agassi. Federer was a lethal volleyer; Djokovic became one. The one constant has been adaptability.

On Centre Court, then, variety is king. Newcombe, who bowed to no one in his eagerness to get forward, is the only real outlier among the select band to have defended the title. But like fellow net-rusher McEnroe – whom no one could accuse of lacking variety – the broad-shouldered Australian possessed a baseline game predicated on making the most of his attacking skills, particularly on grass. Whether driving a flat forehand into the corner or pinning his opponent back with a deep sliced backhand, Newcombe’s prime objective was to get to the net, where the real business of the match could be conducted. 

That is not to say that every successful title defence in the open era has been built on a diet of serve-and-volley, chip-and-charge, crush-and-rush. Such skills are on the endangered list, certainly relative to the days when the likes of Laver, Newcombe and McEnroe held sway. But Federer, Alcaraz and even Djokovic have all, to a greater or lesser degree, kept the tradition alive, if not as a go-to play, then certainly as a tactical weapon, a means to vary the method of attack and keep opponents guessing.

Why Sinner needs Alcaraz

Sinner, too, values diversity. 

Since last year’s US Open final, when he bemoaned his “predictability” after Alcaraz relieved him of both his title and the No 1 ranking, he has worked hard to expand his skillset, not least by sharpening his transition play and net game. The Italian nonetheless leans on those dimensions of his game sparingly, largely because Plan A is so good that other options only become essential when he is facing Alcaraz. 

This year’s Wimbledon final underlined the point: of the 275 points Sinner contested against Zverev, just 23 were played in the forecourt, barely half as many as the Italian attempted the previous summer against Alcaraz. In other words, without Alcaraz around, not even Zverev – the second best player in the world – has been able to force Sinner out of his baseline comfort zone. 

It might be argued that, having devised a winning formula, he would be mad to deviate from it. As Agassi famously remarked in his autobiography Open, the job is not to be the best in the world 365 days a year, but simply to be better than the guy you’re up against on a particular day. Sinner is out to win, not score marks for artistic impression. If he can ride his natural game all the way to the Wimbledon title, why bother trying something different? Yet as Agassi also observed – and Sinner knows all too well – “great things begin at the end of the comfort zone”. If and when Alcaraz returns with his wrist in fully functioning order, Sinner will need more.

Every great champion needs a foil, a player whose presence on the other side of the net drives them to the highest expression of their talent. McEnroe found that opponent in Borg. Stefan Edberg had Becker, whom he faced in three straight Wimbledon finals, winning twice. Rafael Nadal had Federer, who beat him to the title twice but could not quite do it a third time. 

The common thread in each of those historic rivalries was how the protagonists brought out the best in one another. So it is with Sinner and Alcaraz. The Spaniard has twice denied Sinner match points at a major before going on to win the title, first in an electrifying late-night quarter-final at the 2022 US Open, and then in last summer’s epic Roland Garros decider. Each time, Sinner came back stronger, never more so than when he wrested the Wimbledon crown from Alcaraz last summer. 

As is the way of it, that loss in turn prompted Alcaraz to redouble his focus and intensity. By the time he faced Sinner again, a few weeks later at the US Open, he was ready, rolling past his rival in four sets. Cue another turnaround by the Italian, who went on to defeat Alcaraz in the title round at the season-ending ATP Finals, before claiming his seventh win in 17 meetings between the pair in April’s Monte Carlo final.

Such back-and-forth is the lifeblood of all great sporting rivalries; in its absence, Sinner has for the most part been clinically efficient, but rarely inspired. His results have done the talking. With his title win in Rome, for instance, he became the only player other than Djokovic to complete a full house of Masters 1000 titles, a feat he achieved a full seven years earlier than the Serb. As things stand, his status as the world’s best player is indisputable – and yet, beyond Alcaraz, who is capable of forcing him to produce his very best tennis?

Not Zverev, it would seem. Despite the excellence he showed in taking advantage of a depleted field to land his first grand slam title in Paris, and the conviction with which he advanced beyond the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time, the German went into the final on the back of nine straight defeats against Sinner. His unfettered jubilation at taking the first set hardly spoke of a deep-seated belief that he could win two more, and so it proved, Sinner rebounding to win a match that, though high on technical excellence, offered little by way of spectacle and stardust.

The numbers told the story. Sinner dominated every meaningful metric, winning 80% of points on his first serve to Zverev’s 72%, and 65% on his second to 59%. He also hit more winners (58 to 49), made significantly fewer unforced errors (25 to 45), and won a higher proportion of points at the net, despite venturing forward less often.

But for all the technical proficiency on show, the match itself was a dud, certainly in comparison with the extraordinary drama and emotion delivered by the women’s final between Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova. A contest in which the first break point does not arrive for almost three hours is unlikely to keep an audience on the edge of their seats. Instead, the final felt like a throwback to the 90s, when big serves held sway, and the artistry and imagination of previous eras seemed irredeemably lost.

And as the thunderbolts were hurled, and Sinner once again asserted his superiority over an opponent he had mauled in just 58 minutes a few weeks earlier in Madrid, the nagging sense that only Alcaraz could truly test him grew ever stronger.

Do any of these quibbles matter? Sinner and his fanbase can point to two straight Wimbledon titles and say not. But if the Italian’s presence in the back-to-back club feels incongruous, it is partly because his game lacks the completeness of the modern grass-court greats. He is, undeniably, a wonderful, multi-surface player, a multiple major winner and dominant world No 1 whose place in the tennis Hall of Fame is already assured. But we can admit all that and still acknowledge that his grass-court game does not yet possess the multitudes of a McEnroe or Federer. 

At 24, there is ample scope for that to change. Even Djokovic, whose game Sinner’s most closely resembles, needed time to evolve into a player for all seasons. 

Nor should it be overlooked that, while Sinner already belongs to an elite group of multiple major winners, his body of work does not yet have the depth of most of his peers in Wimbledon’s back-to-back club. Five of the nine men who have successfully defended the title in the open era are in double figures for grand slams won. Of the remaining four, Newcombe, McEnroe and Becker have 31 major singles finals between them, while Alcaraz, like Sinner, remains a work in progress (albeit one with a career grand slam to his name). Sinner is not yet the player that, all things being equal, he is on course to become; for now, the scale of his achievements outstrips the rate of his development.

Yet that can only bode well. A second straight Wimbledon title is merely the latest piece of evidence to suggest that Sinner’s best years are ahead of him. For now, though, he is a champion cast in a different mould to his predecessors.

The post Jannik Sinner retained the Wimbledon title. Does it put him among the grass-court greats? appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Five weeks after their monumental duel at Roland Garros, expectations were understandably high at the prospect of the pair going at it again with the Wimbledon title on the line. But Paris, where Alcaraz fought back from a two-set deficit, saving three championship points to prevail after five hours and 29 minutes of extraordinary theatre, was inevitably a difficult act to follow.  

The encore was a relatively anticlimactic affair, high in quality but largely devoid of the tension and uncertainty that characterised the first instalment. If the French Open final was a wild rollercoaster ride, the follow-up in SW19 had a more Aristotelian quality, drama giving way to catharsis as Sinner exorcised memories of his ordeal on the Parisian clay with a clinical 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory. 

In securing his fourth grand slam title, and first away from the hard courts of Melbourne Park and Flushing Meadows, the 23-year-old ended a run of five straight defeats to Alcaraz and became the first Italian to lift a Wimbledon singles trophy. For a player who returned from a 12-week drugs suspension in early May after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid that purportedly entered his system through a massage, it represents a remarkable turnaround.

“Very emotional, no, even if I don’t cry,” said Sinner, reflecting on the moments following victory, when he crouched low on the Centre Court grass, his head bowed as he tried to process the enormity of it all. “It feels emotional because only me and the people who are close to me know exactly what we have been through on and off the court, and it has been everything except easy. 

“We’ve tried to push, you know, every practice session, even [though] I was struggling at times mentally. Maybe even more in practice sessions, because I feel like when I play the match, I can switch off and just play. I believe that this helped me a lot. 

“To share this moment with my family here, my whole family here, it’s the most amazing thing that could have happened to me.”

It was nonetheless a curious match, entertaining yet strangely dissatisfying, the whole somehow less than the immaculately crafted parts. That owed much to the essentially linear nature of the contest, which was controlled by Sinner aside from an electric four-game passage in which Alcaraz rebounded from 4-2 down to win the opening set. If the momentum shifts of their French Open meeting were plotted on a graph, the pattern would have formed a zigzag, gentle at first and then ever more frenetic; here, the Italian’s first-set early blip aside, things proceeded more or less in a straight line. 

That is not to deny the excellence of the ball-striking from both men, or the mental steel Sinner exhibited in wresting back control after falling behind. But for once, Alcaraz failed to keep his end of the deal, failed to find that signature spark of inspiration; for once, he waved the wand only to find the magic wanting. He entered the stage as a two-time defending champion on a 24-match winning streak, but left it with his recent aura of invincibility punctured, if not his smile. 

It was a reminder that Alcaraz, who had won each of his five previous grand slam finals, is fallible after all. That he is not just a walking highlight reel. There are moments when the things he does on a tennis court appear almost otherworldly, yet rarely has he seemed more human than when he looked forlornly towards his box after being broken late in the third set, yelling in his native tongue: “He is playing much better than me.” 

“At some points I didn’t know what I had to do in the match, because from the baseline I was feeling he was better than me, and I couldn’t do anything about it,” Alcaraz later explained. “I think the big key was about the second serve. He was returning really well the second serve that I was hitting. 

“Thanks to that, he was in the position to attack the second ball every time. It is really difficult when you are feeling that you are just defending all the time and running from side to side.”

Alcaraz is still Alcaraz and inevitably, over the course of three hours and four minutes, he showed flashes of brilliance, not least in the latter stages of the first set. In the eighth game, he laid the foundations for a break with a combination of finesse and firepower, following up a gorgeous angled drop volley with a brutal baseline barrage, and he later showcased his peerless defensive skills to telling effect, converting his second set point with a brilliant, lunging backhand winner.

More often, though, the key moments belonged to Sinner. Serving to level the contest at a set apiece, the Italian bludgeoned a forehand down the line to bring up two set points before producing a sumptuous cross-court forehand on the dead run. Later, having engineered a break with a pair of brilliant returns that he backed up with approach shots of devastating accuracy and power, he served out the third set with dead-eyed ruthlessness. 

And at the death, when Sinner found himself two sets to love up and 5-3 ahead in the fourth, a lead identical to the one he had held in Paris, he refused to buckle, refused to listen to his inner demons or countenance the notion that history might repeat itself. Not even when Alcaraz, fighting to cling on to his title, served himself out of a hole at 15-30, a success he greeted with a gladiatorial roar towards his box. 

Instead, with the championship in his crosshairs, Sinner was hard as nails, his focus unwavering as he carved out a 40-0 lead before sending down one last service winner to convert his second match point and seal a first win over Alcaraz since his title run at the 2023 China Open. It was the work of a man with a granite mentality.

“Today’s match I think was a match of moments, of just who was going to step up in the big moment and make something happen,” said Darren Cahill, who coaches Sinner alongside Simone Vagnozzi. “At Roland Garros it was Carlos, and today it was Jannik.

“He came here and played with a real purpose. I think you could see from the first match he played that he wasn’t carrying any baggage from Roland Garros. That’s not easy to do. It’s easy for us to say that in words, to put it to one side. But for the player to wipe it away and be able to come here with the mentality that he had, is 100% credit to him.”

Grand slam titles are rarely won without fortune smiling favourably somewhere along the way, and for Sinner that moment came in the fourth round when Grigor Dimitrov, leading by two sets to love, was forced to retire with a pectoral injury. The Italian suffered an injury scare of his own in that match, jarring his right elbow in an early fall, and he wore a protective sleeve on his arm for the remainder of the tournament. But Sinner has become inured to adversity in recent times. 

“I had a tough loss in Paris,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter how you win or you lose. You just have to understand what you did wrong and you have to accept the loss and keep working. This is why I hold this trophy here.”

The post Sinner defeats Alcaraz to win first Wimbledon title appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

In a match-up that drew a ripple of mischievous amusement as it was announced at the conclusion of Friday morning’s draw, Alcaraz will begin his quest for a third successive crown against Fabio Fognini, the gifted but unpredictable Italian whose languid shot-making belies a notoriously fiery disposition.

Fognini has hinted that this is likely to be his final year on the tour and, while it would be stretching it to suggest an upset could be on the cards, the 38-year-old will undoubtedly relish the prospect of facing a big name on Centre Court in what may be his last match at Wimbledon. The pair have met twice previously, both times on red clay in Rio de Janeiro, with Alcaraz winning on each occasion. 

The Spanish second seed is projected to face Holger Rune of Denmark in the quarter-finals, with either Alexander Zverev, the German world No 3, or Taylor Fritz, the fifth seed, barring his path to another final. 

Krejcikova, meanwhile, was drawn against Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, the 20-year-old left-hander whose breakout run to the semi-finals of the Miami Open earlier this year included victories over Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek. The 74th-ranked Eala, who has made encouraging progress on grass ahead of her main draw debut at Wimbledon, will cross swords with Australian teenager Maya Joint for the Eastbourne Open title on Saturday.

It represents a tough start for Krejcikova, who has barely played since the turn of the year due to a back injury and withdrew from her scheduled Eastbourne quarter-final against Varvara Gracheva this week with a thigh problem, raising further doubts about her fitness. The 29-year-old Czech, currently ranked 17th, defeated Jasmine Paolini in last year’s Wimbledon final to claim her second grand slam title following her French Open victory of four years ago. 

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, will open her challenge against Carson Branstine, a 24-year-old Canadian qualifier. The 27-year-old Belarusian could meet former champion Marketa Vondrousova, who defeated her in straights sets in the semi-finals of the Berlin Open last weekend, in round three. Sabalenka is projected to face Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion, in the last eight, with either Paolini or Qinwen Zheng, the Olympic champion and fifth seed, potentially awaiting in the semi-finals.

In the lower half of the draw, second seed Coco Gauff will begin her campaign against the 42nd-ranked Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine and could play former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka in round two. 

Gauff, 21, is expected to face Swiatek in the last eight – although the Pole, who opens against Polina Kudermetova, may first have to get past either Danielle Collins or Marta Kostyuk in the third round, followed by Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion. The American, who won her second major title at the French Open earlier this month, is seeded to meet fellow countrywoman Jessica Pegula, who starts against Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy, in the last four.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, top seed Jannik Sinner opens against Luca Nardi and is expected to meet another Italian opponent, Lorenzo Musetti, in the last eight. Sinner could then be in line for a reunion with Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in the semi-finals two years ago. First, though, Djokovic may need to see off Britain’s Jack Draper, the fourth seed, who gave the seven-time champion an opening-round scare on his main draw debut in 2021. 

With his thunderous southpaw serve and heavy forehand, Draper would seem to have a game ideally suited to grass. But the 23-year-old, who will be carrying the hopes of the home nation despite never previously going beyond round two in three visits to SW19, has been handed an onerous draw. Following an opening-round assignment against Sebastián Báez, the world No 38, Draper could meet former finalist Marin Cilic, followed by Alexander Bublik – who defeated him at the French Open earlier this month and won the Halle Open on grass last weekend – and the rising Czech teenager Jakub Mensik.

Emma Raducanu, who aggravated a lingering back injury during her recent quarter-final run at Queen’s Club, has been handed a similarly difficult path. The former US Open champion, who reached the fourth for the second time last year, begins against 17-year-old wildcard Mimi Xu, a former British national junior champion. Assuming she survives unscathed, Raducanu will face either the resurgent Vondrousova, who won the Berlin Open title last week, or the American 32nd seed McCartney Kessler – followed, in all likelihood, by Sabalenka.

The post Alcaraz and Krejcikova handed intriguing Wimbledon draws appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The nugget of wisdom bequeathed to Carlos Alcaraz by his grandfather, and tattooed in shorthand on his left wrist, has never felt more pertinent than it did on Sunday at Roland Garros, where the 22-year-old Spaniard saved three championship points against Jannik Sinner, the Italian world No 1, to win the longest French Open final in history.

Having divided the past six majors equally between them, the pair have already inherited the mantle of the Big Three. But their epic first meeting in a grand slam final brought vibrant confirmation that tennis has a life beyond Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, with Alcaraz recovering from two sets to love down for the first time in his career to prevail in a fifth-set tiebreak after five hours and 29 minutes of pure theatre. 

In staving off three match points, Alcaraz achieved a feat not seen in the men’s game since 1927, when Henri Cochet came within a point of defeat on six occasions before finally prevailing against fellow “French musketeer” Jean Borotra in five sets. 

That statistic alone is indicative of the historic nature of what was undoubtedly the greatest comeback in a grand slam final since the open era began in 1968. Djokovic saved two match points to deny Federer a 21st major at Wimbledon in 2019, but the most obvious point of comparison came in 2004, when Gastón Gaudio prevailed in an all-Argentine Roland Garros final, likewise saving a pair of championship points after dropping the first two sets against Guillermo Coria. 

That, though, was a nervous, cramp-ridden affair; this was tennis of an entirely different order. In the first French Open final to be decided by a final-set tiebreak, Alcaraz initially found Sinner every bit as impenetrable as the Italian’s previous 20 grand slam opponents. Yet the Spaniard somehow summoned the will and the level to force a decider in which Sinner displayed extraordinary reserves of physical and mental fortitude, defying cramp and then defying Alcaraz, who served for the title at 5-4, to take the contest down to the wire. 

Only at the death was Alcaraz finally able to pull clear, the defending champion riding the momentum from a jaw-dropping backhand pass in his final service game to produce a near-flawless exhibition of shot-making in the climactic tiebreak. A brilliant running forehand sealed a victory for the ages, 4-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (10-2), and sent rapturous observers scurrying for superlatives, with some even comparing the match to the 1980 and 2008 Wimbledon finals between, respectively, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe and Nadal-Federer.

“If people put our match in that table, it’s a huge honour for me,” said Alcaraz after sealing his fifth grand slam title. “I don’t know if it is at the same level as those matches because those matches are, you know, the history of tennis and the history of the sport. So I let people talk about it, if for them [the matches] are almost the same. 

“But for me, watching from outside or realising what that match is in the history of tennis, I don’t know if our match is in the same table as them. But [I’m] just happy to put our match and our names in the history of the grand slams, in the history of Roland Garros. I [leave] the discussion to the people.”

So what of that discussion? The drama of the denouement was undeniable, and both men produced some majestic tennis. For two sets, Sinner was almost unplayable; by the end, it was Alcaraz who was untouchable. Yet it should also be acknowledged that, until the latter stages, they rarely played their best tennis at the same time. As Sinner marched into a seemingly unassailable lead, suffocating Alcaraz with the quality of his serving and deep, central returns, which denied the Spaniard the angles on which he thrives, the heightened sense of anticipation surrounding the contest dwindled. 

Put it this way: had Sinner gone on to seal the title in four sets, the match would never have been mentioned in the same breath as Borg-McEnroe 1980 or Federer-Nadal 2008, both of which featured genre-defining fourth-set tiebreaks in which match points were saved and individual points forever seared in the memory. The equivalent shootout here was relatively devoid of jeopardy, two of Sinner’s three points coming early, and from unforced errors. 

Instead, the pivotal moments came when Sinner made three straight errors with Alcaraz serving at 3-5, 0-40. Duly emboldened, the Spaniard slammed down an ace, smoked a forehand down the line, and cupped a hand to his ear, drinking in the acclaim of a crowd desperate to see more. Alcaraz duly obliged, breaking with some scintillating all-court play, and from that moment on the fascination became whether he could finish what he had started, staging a repeat of his comeback from a similarly parlous position against Sinner at the 2022 US Open.

So while the score might have evoked memories of those classic Wimbledon finals, the context was as different as the surface and the protagonists; a new match, for a new generation. And perhaps that is as it should be: not every chapter in the sport’s evolution has to echo the previous one, as Sinner pointed out.

“I think every rivalry is different, no?” Sinner said of the contest’s place in the pantheon. “Back in the days, they played a little bit different tennis. Now, you know, the ball is going fast. It’s very physical. It’s slightly different from my point of view, you cannot compare.”

Everyone will have their own opinion, of course, and many of the sport’s luminaries were in no doubt about what they were seeing. 

“They’re playing at a pace that’s not human,” enthused TV pundit and three-time French Open champion Mats Wilander. “Insane level,” Stan Wawrinka declared on social media. McEnroe even suggested both men would have been favourites against peak Nadal – proof, if nothing else, that the American analyst’s aptitude for going too far burns as bright as it did in his playing days. But Alcaraz probably had it about right when he remarked that, good as the match was, he’d seen better.

“To say it was one of the greatest finals in the history of the grand slams, it’s really high status,” he told TNT Sports. “I have to say that there have been better finals. I’m going to say one: Novak [Djokovic] against Rafa [Nadal], the final of the Australian Open [in 2012]. That level of final is pretty high. In history, there have been better finals I guess. But I’m just really happy to put my name into one of the best finals, the longest finals, here in Roland Garros.”  

Few could have guessed what was coming in the early stages. While Sinner was clinical, Alcaraz seemed to be all out of the stardust he normally sprinkles on these occasions. Even when he won the third set it felt more like a gesture of defiance, a minor skirmish won, than the start of a more wholesale turnaround. 

While Alcaraz’s spirit was admirable, it was still difficult to imagine Sinner letting the match slip. The Italian’s serve dipped markedly in that middle set – he won just 44% of points behind his first delivery, compared with 70% for the match as a whole – and the likelihood remained that he would find a solution.

True, the flashes of brilliance from Alcaraz’s racket were becoming more frequent. But the defending champion was still overpressing, trying to force the play rather than construct points with an endgame in mind. A case in point came at the start of the third, when a searing crosscourt forehand fell narrowly wide, costing him a break. Alcaraz gestured frustratedly to his box, evidently mystified by the imprecision of his baseline bombs. 

By the latter stages of the decider, however, the Spaniard was beginning to hit his targets with ominous frequency. There was a setback when he failed to serve out the match at 5-4, but that was mainly because Sinner threw the kitchen sink at him.

The Italian had never previously won a match spanning more than three hours and 50 minutes. Yet, despite showing signs of cramp early in the set, he came within two points of doing so with Alcaraz serving at 5-6, 15-30. It was an incredible effort, given this was just his second tournament after a three-month drug ban, but Alcaraz remained immovable.

Only Borg and Nadal have won five grand slam titles at a younger age, a timeline all the more remarkable for the fact that he reached that milestone at 22 years, one month and three days – exactly the same age Nadal was when he achieved the same feat. 

“I have to realise that I’ve done it, I think that’s the first step,” Alcaraz said of that unlikely conjunction. “The coincidence of winning my fifth grand slam at the same age as Rafa Nadal, I’m going to say that’s destiny, I guess. 

“It is a stat that I’m going to keep for me forever, winning the fifth grand slam at the same time as Rafa, my idol, my inspiration. It’s a huge honour, honestly. You know, hopefully it’s not going to stop like this.”

After the greatest comeback in living memory, that seems unlikely. Alcaraz showed the mental strength to keep fighting when all looked lost, the spirit to work his way back into contention, and the courage to play his best tennis when the need was greatest. Head, heart, cojones: just like his grandfather always told him.

The post Alcaraz pulls off epic comeback to beat Sinner in French Open final appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

That things have not quite worked out that way has been largely down to circumstance. Both men have continued to produce the extraordinary level they showcased that night in New York. Between them, they have won seven of the 10 grand slam finals contested since, but none of those titles have been won in direct competition with each other, with the duo yet to cross swords at the climax of a major.

Sinner’s fourth-round win at Wimbledon in 2022, and Alcaraz’s five-set semi-final victory at last year’s French Open, are their only other grand slam meetings to date.

That will surely change in time – and perhaps sooner rather than later, given that the pair will be seeded to contest the final of the French Open, which begins in Paris a week from now. In the meantime, though, the 11th instalment of their rivalry, in Sunday’s final of the Rome Masters, offered ample food for thought.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Sinner is still only nine days into his return from a three-month doping ban, it was not a vintage encounter. For all the tension of a first set in which little separated the pair, the Italian faded markedly after falling behind, while Alcaraz curbed his natural instinct to entertain in favour of a more tactically disciplined approach. 

It made for a contest high on quality and intensity but low on drama, certainly in comparison with their best encounters. Once Alcaraz fended off two set points to force a first-set tiebreak, any sense of jeopardy quickly drained from the match, the Spaniard seizing control of the ensuing shootout with a mini-break and a pair of thunderous aces. From there, Sinner was always playing catch-up, Alcaraz completing his 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory with something to spare.

It was Alcaraz’s fourth straight success against the Italian world No 1. Following his win at last month’s Monte Carlo Masters, the 22-year-old becomes the first man to win multiple clay-court titles at this level since his compatriot Rafael Nadal in 2018. He is also the first to beat Sinner since last October, when the Italian responded to defeat by Alcaraz in the China Open final by embarking on a 26-match winning streak. 

It means Alcaraz will arrive in Paris not only as the defending champion, but as the man to beat; seeded second, but in pole position to claim his fifth grand slam title. 

“Today was a great level, I think for both of us, especially the first set,” said Alcaraz after sealing the win in an hour and 29 minutes. “I knew at the beginning, the matches against Jannik are always really tactical. I think today I started the match really well.

“Tactically, [from] the beginning till the last ball, I didn’t lose focus, which is great for me. [It’s] probably one of the best matches I played so far in terms of level, maintaining the level during the whole match. So I’m just really proud about that.

“Winning tournaments, lifting trophies, gives you a lot of confidence coming to the next tournaments. Masters 1000s give you a lot of confidence in yourself, just to know that you are on the right path, in the right way, playing great tennis. I’m just excited about what’s to come for me. 

“I’m doing the right things, and I’m going to keep doing the right things, the right work, coming to Paris.”

For the returning Sinner, it was perhaps a match too far. His triumphant progress to the final, soundtracked by the feverish adulation of an adoring home crowd, included a clinical evisceration of two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud, against whom he dropped just one game, and a battling victory over Tommy Paul in the last four, where he also had to contend with a tight hamstring.

Despite his inability to complete a clean sweep of the singles titles, following Jasmine Paolini’s emphatic win over Coco Gauff in Saturday’s women’s final, Sinner can reflect with satisfaction on a fine week’s work. 

“After three months [out], coming here, making this result, means a lot to me, a lot to my team also,” said Sinner. “We worked a lot to be here.

“For sure there are some things like we saw today what we have to improve if we want to do good in Paris. I am closer than expected in a way. But in the other way, it was good. 

“It was a great week for me. Some matches incredibly well, some matches could be better. But this is tennis. It’s a lot of ups and downs.”

There have been plenty of those for Sinner in the nine months since it emerged that he twice tested positive for the banned substance clostebol last spring. 

An independent panel accepted his explanation that the failed tests were caused by contamination from a bare-handed massage by his physio, who had used an over-the-counter treatment containing clostebol. Free to continue competing after the panel concluded that Sinner “bore no fault or negligence”, he went on to win a maiden US Open title before a successful defence of his Australian Open crown took his tally of majors to three.

But after an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which accepted Sinner’s explanation but insisted he should bear some responsibility for the incident, the Italian reluctantly agreed to a ban running from 9 February to 4 May. 

An arrangement that allowed Sinner to return to the game in time for the next grand slam – and in his home country, no less, where he has predictably been afforded a hero’s welcome – was understandably deemed a little too convenient by many observers.

Yet the ice has been broken, and Sinner can head to Roland Garros confident in the knowledge that he has been accepted back into the fold, and reassured that his tennis remains at the level required to challenge for the biggest prizes.

Even so, it will be fascinating to see how he is received by the famously fickle Parisian crowd. On Sunday, he was greeted by a sea of orange hats and serenaded with chants of “Olè, olè, olè, olè, Sin-ner, Sin-ner”, just as he has been all week; at Roland Garros, where the locals may find something comfortingly familiar about a Spanish champion weaving his magic on the red clay, Alcaraz can expect the support to be more evenly divided.

That he was able to enter the lion’s den at the Foro Italico and emerge unscathed can only give Alcaraz confidence. His run of success against Sinner notwithstanding, the Spaniard remains wary of the danger posed by his contemporary. 

“It doesn’t matter that he was out of the tour for three months,” said Alcaraz. “Every tournament he’s playing, he plays great. The numbers are there. I mean, he wins almost every match he plays. 

“That’s why I’m even more focused when I play against him. If I don’t play at my best, 10 out of 10, it’s going to be impossible to beat him. That’s why I’m more focused when I’m playing against him, or I feel a little bit different when I’m going to face him than [when I face] other players. 

“He has that aura. When you see him at the other side of the net, it’s kind of different. That’s why obviously I’m feeling that the people are putting so much – how can I say – pressure, in a certain way, to both of us when we are facing each other. 

“I feel like it’s a different energy when we are facing against each other.”

If they meet again in Paris, they will bring that energy to a grand slam final for the first time. it is a contest the world longs to see.

The post Alcaraz’s Rome Masters win over Sinner – a pointer for Paris? appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

It has not taken the 23-year-old Italian long to make good on those intimations of sporting immortality and, after winning two grand slam titles already this season, the world No 1 added another feather to his cap on Sunday with a first victory at the season-ending ATP Finals.

With his polished 6-4, 6-4 victory over Taylor Fritz, in what was a repeat of September’s US Open final and also a replica of his group-stage win over the big-serving Californian by the same score, Sinner completed a flawless week’s work, earning a $4.8m (£3.8m) cheque for his troubles.

He becomes the first Italian champion in the history of the season-ending showpiece, and the first player to win the eight-man event without dropping a set since Ivan Lendl in 1986. Sinner finishes the season with eight titles in all, just as Lendl did, and his record of 70 wins and just six defeats is also uncannily close to the Czech’s 74-6 record that year.  

That Sinner was able to achieve it all in front of a raucous and adoring home crowd only magnified the sense of occasion. If Fritz was under any illusions about the enormity of the task facing him, they were dispelled as the opening game, when his opponent stroked a sumptuous backhand winner to claim his first point. The deafening clamour with which even that minor success was greeted offered a foretaste of what lay ahead for the American, who has now been consigned to defeat by Sinner in the two biggest matches of his career. 

Sinner, who had never previously won a senior professional title in his native country, follows in the footsteps of Andy Murray, whose 2016 victory in London marked the last time the ATP Finals were won by a player competing on home soil. Following his Australian and US Open victories, the Italian joins Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as only the third player in history to compete a clean sweep of the sport’s three biggest hard-court prizes. He finds himself in ever more illustrious company.

“I just tried to play the best possible tennis I could in every single moment,” said Sinner after his 26th win in 27 matches. “The crowd helped me a lot. It was for sure one of the most special weeks I’ve had on a tennis court.

“It’s a very nice way to finish off an incredible season. A lot of wins, a lot of titles.”

Where he goes from here is another matter. The controversy surrounding two failed drug tests earlier this year has not gone away, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport set to hear the World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal against his exoneration by an independent tribunal, on the basis of contamination, early next year. With the Australian Open starting on 12 January, however, Sinner will almost certainly embark on his first defence of a grand slam title with the affair still hanging over him. 

For the moment, though, such considerations can wait. This was another clinically efficient performance from Sinner, who has now won each of his past four meetings with Fritz, his only loss coming when they crossed swords for the first time three years ago in Indian Wells. It has been another milestone tournament for Fritz, who advanced to the final with wins over Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur and Alexander Zverev – his fourth straight victory over the German world No 2 – and though he cut a disconsolate figure as he sat at courtside afterwards, his disappointment did not prevent him from offering a clear-headed appraisal of Sinner’s excellence.

“What I was really impressed with today was how he served,” said Fritz, who watched 14 aces whistle by and was unable to convert his only break point of the contest. “He served absolutely lights out. So many lines. 

“He placed the serve great. He took a lot of risk on the second serve as well. I think that was probably one of his main game plans, to not let me attack his second serve. He did a great job of not only mixing up the second [serve] but also being very aggressive with it.”

It meant the onus was on Fritz to hold, and his determination to do so was evident in the seventh game, when he staved off the first two break points of the match in style. Even when a loose backhand followed by a double fault landed him in further trouble, Fritz was equal to the challenge, defending brilliantly to stay in the game. But Sinner was not to be denied, forcing an error with an immaculate return before caressing away a drop shot.

Not for the first time in a week when the Italian painted the town orange with his smooth-striking excellence, the stadium was shaken to its foundations by chants of “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Sinner, Sinner”. 

There would be another fevered explosion of joy at 2-2 in the second set, when Fritz made a dog’s breakfast of a drop shot to hand his opponent another opening. Once again, the American fought off the initial danger only to come a cropper, eventually blasting a forehand long to concede a second and ultimately decisive break. 

While Fritz must be content with a career-high ranking of No 4 and a memorable run to the title round at Flushing Meadows, where he became the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach a grand slam final, Sinner’s rise continues apace. Simone Vagnozzi, who coaches the Italian alongside Darren Cahill, ranked the victory alongside his countryman’s two grand slam wins. 

“For sure it was an amazing year.,” said Vagnozzi. “We started with a victory in Australia and we finished with the trophy here. It was really long year, stressful year, but we are happy with everything we achieved, first two slams for Jannik, first win here in Italy with the ATP Masters.”

More will surely follow. Among Sinner’s chief rivals, Djokovic will seek to come back stronger next season after failing to win a major for the first time since 2017, while the likes of Fritz, Zverev and Medvedev will also hope to have a say in the destination of the big prizes.

For now, though, only Carlos Alcaraz – winner of the French Open and Wimbledon, and architect of three of Sinner’s half dozen defeats in 2024 – looks capable of thwarting the Italian’s seemingly inexorable rise. Alcaraz, that is, and the panel of Cas arbitrators who will convene in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the coming months to decide whether the man of the moment should be banned for up to two years.

The post Sinner rounds off historic season with ATP Finals victory over Fritz appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

After the setbacks of late summer, when he was defeated in the Olympic final and went on to suffer an early loss at the US Open, the 21-year-old Spaniard capped a resurgent week in Beijing by defeating Jannik Sinner, the defending champion, to win the China Open.

Matches between Alcaraz and Sinner rarely disappoint, and this breathless, seesaw encounter was no exception. In an absorbing final of high drama and countless twists and turns, the Italian world No 1 staged a masterclass in escapology, hauling himself off the canvas time and again before Alcaraz, who started and finished the contest in electrifying form, finally prevailed 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

In a year when the pair have divvied up the four major championships, Alcaraz has won on each of the three occasions they have met, edging 6-4 ahead in their personal rivalry with victories in Indian Wells, Paris and now Beijing. That trio of showdowns all went the distance, however, and there remains precious little between them. 

Over the course of an enthralling three hours and 21 minutes, Sinner fended off a dozen break points, recovered from 5-2 down to win the opener – although only after saving three set points – and then clawed his way back from a break down in the decider to move within two points of victory. None of it was enough to prevent Alcaraz from becoming the first player to win an ATP 500 tournament on all three surfaces, following his victories on the clay courts of Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona, on grass at Queen’s Club last year, and now on the slick hard courts of Beijing’s Olympic tennis centre. 

“I’m proud about myself with everything I’ve done the last month, working really hard physically, on the court as well,” said Alcaraz after securing his fourth title of the season with a ninth straight win.

“It has been an intense month, but [I’m] really happy to end it with the trophy here in Beijing, with a really incredible match. I think both of us showed a really high level of tennis, a high level mentally, physically, until the last ball, running from side to side, showing really good rallies, really good points in the tiebreak of the third.”

In that climactic shootout, Alcaraz underlined his late-season resurgence with an extraordinary final flourish, erasing a 3-0 advantage for Sinner as he reeled off seven consecutive points with his wing-heeled court coverage, incisive volleying and laser-like forehands. It was the clearest indication yet that the French Openand Wimbledon champion is back to his very best.

The 21-year-old never really went away, of course, yet this still felt like a restorative victory, both personally and for the sport as a whole. 

On the one hand, in claiming his first title since Wimbledon, Alcaraz ensured that a summer of glory at Roland Garros and the All England Club did not fade into a winter of discontent following his defeat to Novak Djokovic in the Olympic final. That setback, which left him devastated, was swiftly followed by surprise early losses to Gaël Monfils in Cincinnati and Botic van de Zandschulp at the US Open. But having steadied the ship with strong showings for Spain in the Davis Cup and a pivotal role in Team Europe’s Laver Cup victory, a win that snapped Sinner’s 15-match unbeaten run marked a welcome return to form.

“I started to get the joy back playing the matches, practising, I got motivated again,” said Alcaraz, who has been beaten just once in nine meetings with top-five opposition this season. “I really wanted to travel, to play tournaments again. 

“After the American swing, I was a little bit down, I didn’t want to touch a racket for a while. I didn’t want to travel, let’s say. I talked a lot [to my team] during those days, knowing that I have to be back practising, be stronger physically, be stronger mentally just to overcome on those problems. 

“The last month, we’ve been working really, really hard on the court, off the court, just to be able to feel this moment again.”

Those who have questioned the handling of Sinner’s recent brush with the anti-doping authorities are likely to be equally heartened by Alcaraz’s win. The Italian’s campaign in Beijing began with news that the World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed against the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s decision to clear him of wrongdoing after he failed two drug tests in March, raising the possibility that the 23-year-old could be banned for up to two years. While Sinner showed admirable resolve in putting the issue to one side as he advanced to the final – a run that included gritty three-set wins over Nicolás Jarry and Roman Safiullin – Djokovic voiced the feelings of many when he suggested the case was doing the sport few favours.

“I think it’s quite obvious that we have a system that is not working well,” said Djokovic, speaking ahead of the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, where Alcaraz and Sinner will begin their respective campaigns at the weekend. “That’s probably something that even the people who are not following our sport are realising. There’s way too many inconsistencies, way too many governing bodies involved, and this whole case is not helping our sport at all. 

“It must be very tough for him, and his team and family. Hopefully, we can go back to tennis… these circumstances are not positive for our sport, so hopefully we can resolve this case as soon as possible.”

The frustration, for all who hold the sport dear, is that we cannot simply sit back and enjoy the wondrous shot-making and athleticism of a rivalry that, all things being equal, promises to sustain the men’s game for years to come – at least, not without harbouring fears about what lies ahead. 

The post Alcaraz claims restorative win over Sinner to secure China Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The Italian world No 1 won his second grand slam title at the US Open earlier this month, just 19 days after it emerged that a panel of experts had accepted his explanation that he was inadvertently contaminated with the banned substance clostebol during a sport massage.

But Wada has lodged an appeal against that decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing that it was “not correct under the applicable rules”. The agency will push for a ban of between one and two years, although it will not seek to have any of Sinner’s results overturned. 

News of the appeal, which was submitted on Thursday, emerged as Sinner continued the defence of his China Open title on Saturday with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over 69th-ranked Roman Safiullin. He said afterwards that he was disappointed by the decision.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed and also surprised [about] this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings,” said Sinner, who won his first major title at the Australian Open in January. “All three hearings came out very positively for me.

“I was not expecting it. I knew it couple of days ago, that they were going to appeal, that today it’s going to go official. But yeah, it’s [a] surprise. We always talk about the same thing. Maybe they just want to make sure that everything is in the right position.”

Traces of clostebol, an anabolic steroid, were found in urine samples taken during and after Sinner’s run to the Indian Wells semi-finals in March. The 23-year-old told the ITIA that the positive tests occurred after his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, used an over-the-counter spray containing the substance to treat a cut on his finger. 

Naldi was given the spray by Sinner’s fitness coach, Umberto Ferrara, and used the product before and during the tournament, but did not wear gloves while treating the player. Following the conclusion of the original investigation by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), Sinner was stripped of the 400 ranking points and £250,000 prize money he earned in Indian Wells in March. He has since dispensed with the services of both Naldi and Ferrara.

Wada’s appeal will not attempt to cast doubt on Sinner’s version of events, but rather rests on the ITIA’s alleged failure to apply the rules correctly.

“It is Wada’s view that the finding of ‘no fault or negligence’ was not correct under the applicable rules,” the global anti-doping agency said in a statement. “Wada is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years. 

“Wada is not seeking a disqualification of any results, save that which has already been imposed by the tribunal of first instance.”

The ITIA said the original investigation was conducted in accordance with Wada guidelines, but acknowledged the organisation’s right to mount an appeal.

“Under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code, Wada has the final right to appeal all such decisions,” the ITIA said in a statement. “Having reached an agreed set of facts following a thorough investigative process, the case was referred to a tribunal entirely independent of the ITIA to determine level of fault and therefore sanction because of the unique set of circumstances, and lack of comparable precedent. 

“The process was run according to World Anti-Doping Code guidelines; however, the ITIA acknowledges and respects Wada’s right to appeal the independent tribunal’s decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

It is possible, but far from certain, that the case could be heard by Cas before the end of the year. Sinner will be free to competein the meantime, but is certain to face renewed scrutiny. 

Darren Cahill, Sinner’s coach, revealed before the US Open that the world No 1 struggled to deal with the fallout from the episode long before it became public knowledge. Cahill intimated that the attendant stress was to blame for the Italian missing the Paris Olympics this summer.

“He’s struggled and I think it’s worn him down physically and mentally,” said Cahill. “He got tonsillitis, which is the reason why he missed the Olympics. 

“I just want to stress that he’s maybe the most professional young man that I have ever had the chance to work with. He would never ever intentionally do anything, and he’s in a situation that is incredibly unfortunate.”

The post Sinner ‘surprised’ as Wada seeks two-year ban over drugs case appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

On the court, the Italian world No 1 has become a model of consistency, not least on hard courts, where his 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Fritz, the American 12th seed, means he has now won 35 of his 37 matches this year. The foundations for a breakout season were laid with a maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open in January, since when Sinner has won a tour-leading six titles. It has been a historic campaign for the 23-year-old, who becomes the first Italian man to win the US Open, and the youngest male player in the open era to win on hard courts at Melbourne Park and Flushing Meadows in the same calendar year. 

Yet for many, Sinner has become an embodiment of inconsistency, given the speed and secrecy with which he was cleared of wrongdoing after a banned substance was detected in his system six months ago. So many players have lost months and even years of their careers in similar circumstances, but here was Sinner, claiming his second grand slam title just 19 days after news broke that he was inadvertently contaminated with clostebol, an anabolic steroid, while receiving massage treatment from Giacomo Naldi, his former physiotherapist.

Granted, on a purely sporting level it is hard not to admire the poise with which Sinner has negotiated his campaign in New York. Since dropping a set against Mackenzie McDonald in the opening round, he has been largely flawless, keeping his head while the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic were losing theirs as he rose above the bonfire of the seeds elsewhere in the draw. Having dispatched Tommy Paul, Daniil Medvedev and his friend Jack Draper in straight sets to reach his first final in New York, Sinner had too much for Fritz on a day when the 26-year-old Californian struggled to find his best tennis until it was too late. 

Yet it is easy to forget that Sinner has had a lot more time to come to terms with the situation than the rest of the tennis world. He has been dealing with the fallout for months now; it would be strange if he had not found a way of coping. Darren Cahill, one half of Sinner’s coaching team alongside Simone Vagnozzi, admitted on the eve of the tournament that the episode had taken a significant mental and emotional toll on his charge. What was not clear at that time was whether Sinner would be liberated or distracted by the public revelation of the news. A fortnight on, we have the answer.

“It was and is still a little bit in my mind,” said Sinner. “It’s not that it’s gone, but when I’m on court I try to focus [on] the game, I try to handle the situation in the best possible way.

“Me and my team and the people who are close to me, they know what I’ve been through in the last months. It was not only one week before the tournament, it was months. 

“Obviously, it was very difficult for me to enjoy [tennis] in certain moments. How I behaved, or how I walked on the court in certain tournaments before, it was not the same as I used to be. So whoever knows me better, they knew that something was wrong.

“But during this tournament, slowly I really started to feel a little bit more how I am as a person. It doesn’t really matter how or what the result was, this tournament, for sure, helped me a little bit.”

For Fritz, playing his first grand slam final, it could hardly have mattered more. It has been 21 years since an American man last won a major, and from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to Matthew McConaughey, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Bon Jovi, the stars were out in force to support their countryman as he attempted to emulate Andy Roddick’s 2003 triumph at Flushing Meadows. But the tennis that carried Fritz past a pair of multiple grand slam finalists in Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev, and then earned him an emotional semi-final win over US team-mate Frances Tiafoe, proved elusive.

The tone was set in the opening game, where a bungled bounce smash cost the big-serving American an instant break. Already Sinner was setting exacting standards from the back of the court, and although Fritz immediately recovered to get back on serve, it was not long before the Italian’s superior ball-striking told again. At 3-3, Fritz followed a wayward forehand with a double fault to gift his opponent two break points, and Sinner snatched the opportunity, forcing the American off the baseline with a blizzard of punishing groundstrokes before applying the coup de grâce with a drop shot. With his first serve percentage languishing at 38%, Fritz was broken again as Sinner wrapped up the set. The tactical conundrum facing the American was clear.

“He’s the best player in the world right now,” said Fritz. “[When] my plan A is not working, the plan B that I fall back on would normally be just like bringing everything in, being a little bit safer, grinding it out. That works, along with my serve, against a lot of other players. 

“But when I try to bring it down, not be as aggressive, then he’s just going to bully me too much. It was tough that my plan A wasn’t really working for me until the third set.”

In short, Fritz was in deep trouble. In the final game of an otherwise service-dominated second set, Sinner raised his level to break with a laser-like backhand down the line. He had made just one unforced error. When Sinner held two break points for a 4-2 lead in the third, the finish line was in sight.

Fritz, however, was not done. Encouraged by his opponent’s failure to punish an inviting second serve, he outlasted Sinner to win a 21-shot rally, then drilled a pair of unanswerable forehands to hold. Suddenly, he was on a roll, pulling Sinner opponent hither and thither with a drop-shot-and-lob routine, nailing an overhead, blasting his way to the net to slot home a volley. Sinner double-faulted to surrender his serve, and in short space Fritz was serving for the set.

Finally, the home crowd had something to shout about. But amid the mayhem that ensued, Sinner remained the coolest head in the house. He broke with a sledgehammer forehand and a teasing drop shot that left Fritz off balance at the net, then powered through his next service game to move within touching distance of the title. In the final game, as Fritz laboured to force a tiebreak, Sinner produced some brilliant defensive play. Unable to find a way past the scrambling Italian, Fritz was hoisted by his own petard, a final despairing forehand dipping into the net.

With Sinner’s victory, men’s tennis enters a new era. This season is the first since 2002 that none of the “big three” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won a major. Instead, Sinner and Alcaraz – the champion in Paris and Wimbledon – have carved up the honours between them. 

“It is a bit different, for sure,” said Sinner. “It’s something new, but it’s also nice to see new champions, nice to see new rivalries.”

The post Sinner overcomes controversy and Fritz to win US Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory that carried Sinner, the world No 1, into a first US Open final was not a matter of strategy and deliberation, so much as the survival of the fittest. Draper, the British 25th seed, who had reached his maiden grand slam semi-final without dropping a set, showed an abundance of quality and guts – a little too literally in the latter case, given his repeated vomiting – but it was Sinner who coped better with the clammy, airless conditions in Arthur Ashe Stadium, recovering from a jarring mid-match fall to prevail in three hours and three minutes.

The contest turned on a gruelling second set in which Draper, not for the first time, was forced to battle his body as well as his opponent. Drenched in sweat and gripped by anxiety, the 22-year-old vomited three times, and although he courageously clung on to his serve throughout, Sinner raised his level in the climactic tiebreak to establish an unassailable lead. 

It was a bitter blow for Draper, who has worked so hard to strengthen his body after the catalogue of injuries that marred his early career, but admits that the anxiety he feels in big moments often manifests itself physically. After an early exchange of breaks, the Briton matched Sinner virtually step for step until 5-5 in the opening set, where an angst-ridden struggle on serve culminated with a double fault. Sinner served out the set with aplomb, and Draper said afterwards that it was in the next game, punctuated by a string of punishing rallies as the Italian pushed for an early break, that his condition began to deteriorate in earnest. 

“At 5-5 [I the first set] we had a really tight game,” said Draper. “Sometimes in the matches you feel an anxious build-up in certain moments, and I definitely felt like that was a big game. I threw in a couple of double faults, I think it was deuce a few times, and then when I came out for the first game in the second set, he was obviously trying to get the break first game. I managed to hold him off, but was definitely starting to not feel great in that moment.

“Even though I generally feel pretty relaxed and stuff, I definitely felt a little bit more excited today, a few more nerves around. I’m definitely someone who’s quite an anxious human being. I think when you add all that together sometimes, I do feel a bit [of] nausea on court, and I do feel a little bit sick when it gets tough.”

No player is immune to nerves, and Draper will undoubtedly learn from the experience. Sinner demonstrated his own strength in dealing with adversity by recovering from a huge scare in the ninth game, when he tumbled backwards after scrambling to retrieve a ball deep behind the baseline, jarring his left wrist. While it did not prevent him from winning the point with a thumping forehand pass, medical staff were on overtime at the ensuing changeover, a doctor administering medication to Draper as a physio worked on Sinner’s wrist. 

“The physio loosened it up very fast on court, so after I felt OK,” said Sinner, who grimaced as he received treatment. “Then after it went away by playing, which is good. Let’s see how it is tomorrow, when it’s cold, [if] it’s going to be a different feeling. Hopefully it’s nothing to be concerned about. I’m quite relaxed because, if it’s something bad, you feel it straightaway a bit more. Let’s see how it is.”

A fortnight that began with Sinner addressing the revelation that an independent tribunal cleared him of wrongdoing after he twice tested positive for a banned substance earlier this year, will now conclude with him seeking to win his second major of the season, following his maiden title at the Australian Open in January. In Sunday’s final, the 23-year-old will face Taylor Fritz, the American 12th seed, who later defeatedhis compatriot Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to become the first homegrown US Open finalist since Andy Roddick in 2006. Fritz, who has never previously advanced beyond the last eight of a major, said it was a challenge he would relish.

“I’ve always played well against Jannik, I think we’re one and one [in previous meetings],” said the 26-year-old Californian, who defeated Sinner in Indian Wells three years ago before the Italian returned the favour at the same venue last spring. 

“It’s been a while since we played, but last time he got me in three at Indian Wells. He hits the ball big, he’s a very strong ball-striker, but I feel Iike I always hit the ball really nice off of his ball. I think I typically play well against him.”

Fritz was not always at his best against Tiafoe, chiefly because his fellow American would not allow it. Having won the first three games – perhaps not altogether unexpectedly, given that his only loss in seven previous meetings with the 2022 semi-finalist came eight years ago – Fritz abruptly found himself confronted by a very different player. As Tiafoe seized the initiative by reeling off six of the next seven games, electrifying the crowd with his ebullient shot-making, the match began to assume a fresh complexion. Fritz hit back to level, breaking late in a service-dominated second set, but when Tiafoe broke early in the third to move ahead by two sets to one, the match appeared to be on his racket. 

Serving at 4-5 in the fourth set, Tiafoe appeared to be closing in on a famous victory. Instead, he frittered away two game points with a pair of double faults, butchered a forehand, and tamely netted a drop shot to hand Fritz the set. With the contest even and cramp setting in, Tiafoe was a double break down in the decider before he knew what had hit him. The match was over in all but name.

“I was the better player for sure tonight,” said a disconsolate Tiafoe. “In the fourth set, I just had some in-and-out cramps. I felt like my body just kind of shut down on me.” 

Draper would no doubt sympathise. 

The post Sinner ends Draper’s US Open odyssey to set up Fritz final appeared first on Love Game Tennis.