Spare your sympathies, Jannik Sinner still the man to beat in tennis

Indian Express

a day ago

As Carlos Alcaraz came up with a generational heist to steal the French Open out from under Jannik Sinner's feet on Sunday, videos of his celebration, with his team and the crowd, played on the big screen.
As the camera panned to Sinner, he could be seen sitting there emotionless, not daring to look up. He had suffered the cruelest ignominy in his sport: blowing as many as three championship points in a Major final and losing the title. The picture was of stark misery.
Later he would pick up the microphone and speak with grace but betray no emotion, articulating in small staccato sentences – perfectly characteristic of the soft-spoken nature of the hard-hitting World No. 1.
The manner of Sinner's defeat, the distress on display in its aftermath, and all of its 'near-loss' narrative may elicit all kinds of pity towards the young Italian. But save your breath, and your sympathies; for this is no novice. The 23-year-old from Italy is the commanding force in the men's game at present, who has won nine trophies, including three Majors, in the last 18 months.
Two days prior to the final, he humbled a fit and firing Novak Djokovic in straight sets in a manner not seen before on the crushed brick in Paris by anyone not named Rafael Nadal. Trust him to be back.
Sinner may not reach Alcaraz's level of superstardom. The Spaniard shines so brightly under the spotlight that he often dims those around him. Sinner's subtler game of refined, well-worked baseline play lacks the sparkle of his rival's penchant for the spectacular. His mild manner pales in comparison to Alcaraz's charisma. But none of that has stopped him from becoming the definitive standard-setter in present-day men's tennis.
There is a methodical efficiency about him, his strategies constructed entirely around stretching players around the court, waiting for the ball to come into his hitting zone and then blowing them away with his pure hitting. The consistency he has achieved has not even been matched by Alcaraz. Despite serving a three-month suspension, he holds a lead over his rival as the highest-ranked player by over 2,000 points.
Sunday's result was the kind of setback that could wreak all sorts of havoc in a young player's mind. It's nothing he has not faced before.
In August last year, it emerged that Sinner had failed two dope tests, but was cleared by tennis's governing bodies after successfully proving his case of accidental contamination. Allegations of cheating, infamy on such a public scale for a player as young as him, are an easy disruptor. But the Italian's response? Since then, he has won 47 of his last 50 matches, Alcaraz the only player on tour to have beaten him in that time.
When the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed the case, they eventually came to a mutual settlement with Sinner's team for the Italian to take a voluntary three-month ban that would see him miss no Majors, a monumental development for the World No. 1 to serve a three-month anti-doping suspension.
Sinner, once again, responded serenely, reaching two finals of both tournaments he has played in the one month since, also answering questions about his game on his least favourite surface of clay.
Call it a result of his upbringing in the cold, mountainous South Tyrol region of Italy, but the high-bouncing, ultra-physical tennis played under the baking Parisian sun do not compliment Sinner's natural strengths. Converting those – lateral movement powered by small steps as opposed to slides, and destructive groundstrokes that are flatter and not spin-laden – to clay have been a tall order for the Italian.
He did so in a style of his own, sticking to his hard court guns by continuing to flatten out groundstrokes, and serving with accuracy. The balls did not come naturally onto his racquet like they do on the synthetic courts, but he met the higher bounces by taking balls on the rise, especially on the backhand side, and hitting through his opponents with the same ease he does on hard courts.
At the French Open, he won 20 consecutive sets before he was one point away from beating the best clay court player on tour on the surface's biggest stage.
Sunday's glitch did expose that he is not yet the finished article. For his head to scramble the way it did, not only hitting three routine errors when up match point but also failing to later serve it out, was not a positive sign. The Italian press later rightly pointed out that he tends to miss his first serves under pressure too often. And that his net approaches prove a confusion in his mind, almost as if he knows he needs to mix up his baseline game, but is unsure about how and when.
But had he not pulled off a daring escape of his own – instead of fading, he rose his level, came back from a break down, and took Alcaraz to searing heights, producing the best tennis of the tournament in the decider – the match would not have reached epic proportions.
His slipup is no indicator that he lacks a cutthroat edge. Sinner himself came back from a two-set deficit against Daniil Medvedev in the 2024 Australian Open final, to win his first Major in his very first final. Stinging defeats like the one he suffered on Sunday have happened in the past, and he has rebounded from them bullishly too.
Sinner does not have a natural preference for the low, skidding, slippery grass of Wimbledon either, but he has improved over time, reaching the semifinals for the last two years. Alongside the two-time defending champion Alcaraz, and the wily Djokovic who looks in as fine touch as he could be, he will be an equal contender there next month.