“I woke up in the not possible way. I felt a little bit sick but unfortunately today was not my day and now it’s clay season”, Jannik Sinner, the 9th ranked player on the ATP said at the press conference after his Miami final loss to Daniil Medvedev.
The young Italian gave his kudos to his 4th ranked opponent saying that “he was serving incredible…obfiously he’s one of the best players in the world.” Sinner has beaten four of the top ten players in the world with the last being the no.
1 in the world. Carlos Alcaraz. It was the semifinal match with the Spaniard which might have contributed to the weaariness Sinner faced when he had to go up against Daniil Medvedev in the final. The match with Alcaraz lasted three hours where Sinner came from a set down to defuse Carlito’s game and win the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.
The Italian’s baseline strategies might have made the Spaniard exhausted but he also had a finger ailment and cramping that were a few troublesome reasons for loss of the match. Defeating the no. 1 was extraordinary for the red-headed lanky Italian and he left it all out on the court, happy to have overcome his error4s to win the semifinal and move into the final.
But Medvedev was waiting for him and he was relieved in knowing he defeated Alcaraz but his work didn’t end in trying to overpower Medvedev, a player he loss to 6 times in meeting him. “I was focused on Daniil because I’ve never won,” Sinner admitted to the media.
But his ability to hold concentration in his championship round would falter due to his physical prior match with the gritty Spaniard that took all of the spunk mentally and strength-wise out of the Italian. Sinner tried to hold up his end of the bargain in defeating Medvedev but he’d gotten up feeling sick and had a history of his own, doing too many long, tough matches before the Miami championship.
He was defeated just a week or so ago at Indian Wells by the Alcara gamesmanship in the semifinals in straight sets. It could be that his game was too predictable getting a draw with the same pponents that had overpowered himbefore.
At the beginning of February though Sinner did get the better of American Maxime Cressy. Sinner was fortunate wo win his first title of the year at the Open Sud De France tournament. The young Italian has also defeated Andrey Rublev, no small task.
Jannik has also taken down the defending champ of Indian Wells, Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinal. He tells the ATP media that “Every player has one or two players where you don’t feel that comfortable with. He’s for sure mine,” Sinner says giving a boyish smile.
All that Jannik can attest to is that he is holding his own as much as possible on court. He and his team are constantly working on different strategies and tactics for Sinner to become more successful in playing opponents with varying styles.
During his press conference after the Miami loss, all the Italian could says is “the clay court season is coming.”
