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Winning a Major means taking a decisive step in the heart of your tennis career. Jannik Sinner has just done it, winning his first, well-deserved Major, beating Daniil Medvedev in five crazy sets and winning the Australian Open 2024.
In the semi-final, Sinner defeated and dominated Novak Djokovic in 4 sets and thus had the chance to play his first Slam final. It was absolutely no walk in the park. Medvedev, despite being more tired, made the Italian tremble in the opening two sets, highlighting all his weak points with more aggressive tennis than expected.
Sinner, however, did not give up and found the strength and the right strategy to completely overturn the score, giving himself a memorable and historic victory. A historic and well-deserved triumph: the numbers themselves confirm it.
The athlete trained by coach Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill managed to overcome Andrey Rublev, Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev from the quarterfinals onwards, all players belonging to the Top-5 of the ATP world ranking (they are respectively at number 5, 1 and 3 in the ranking).
The Italian has thus entered a very small club of tennis players capable of accomplishing this feat. In fact, since 1973, only Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have been able to do so.
3 - Since 1973, Jannik Sinner is only the 3rd player to claim successive ATP top 5 wins in the QF, SF and final at a GS on hard court, after Federer (US Open 2007) and Djokovic (Australian Open 2012). Unique. #AusOpen | @AustralianOpen @janniksin @atptour pic.twitter.com/KbjBL7skE9
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 28, 2024
So, with hard work in the gym, on-court training and physiotherapy, the Italian has gradually become an exceptional player, capable of rewriting the history of Italian tennis. The first Major triumph of a career still in its infancy is not so easily forgotten and is the well-deserved reward for all the energy spent to grow and achieve that much dreamed and desired success.
We recall Sinner will not play the ATP 250 tournament in Marseille, scheduled for next week. After the psycho-physical efforts of Melbourne, the young Italian will take a few days of rest before and will spend some time with his family, returning to training in Monte Carlo with all his team. Sinner should then participate at the ATP 500 tournament in Rotterdam, where last season he lost in the final against Medvedev, before moving in US for the firsts two ATP Masters 1000 of the season, scheduled on the hard-courts of Indian Wells and Miami.
The Australian Open thus crowns its new King. The scepter, from the almost unbeatable Novak Djokovic, passed into the hands of the 22-year-old Italian, who suffered in the first two sets, but in the end he rejoiced, showing great physical, technical and mental strength.
With positive and solid performances, Jannik reached the semifinal of the tournament without conceding a single set to his opponents and conserving precious energy for the final and decisive phases of the event. An exceptional journey for the world number 4 in Melbourne.
And Bertolucci compares Sinner to the Big 3
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Sky Sport, former Italian tennis player Paolo Bertolucci compared Sinner's mental and playing aspects with the Big 3, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
The former ATP no.12 also compared the shots and attitudes of his young countryman, winner of the Australian Open, with those of Nole. Rafa and Roger.
"Sinner's forehand seen today is comparable to that of Roger Federer. Stylistically they are very distant, but I compare them in terms of mastery, effectiveness and solutions as today he broke through the Russian's resistance with this shot.
The head is Nadal's because at 22 years old the only player with such a strong head that I have seen in my life is Nadal. The backhand is Djokovic's, stylistically it is very similar.
Obviously this is not entirely the case because otherwise we would have a 65 Slam monster. As a volley I mention Berdych because he doesn't go forward much like the Czech but when he goes that way he knows what to do.
The courage of Djokovic and Nadal as I understand it as the ability to do the right thing at the right time, it takes courage to hit some shots and take certain risks, you have to feel them inside and they are sensations that the player has knowing that in that moment he is convinced when he goes to hit the ball to put it in that precise spot.
It's like he has a sniper rifle. I don't compare the serve to anyone because there isn't a player who has the same movement, Sinner has modified it a lot over the years and now he has found the right path and in my opinion he will increase the percentage of firsts but I really like the second of Sinner," explained Bertolucci.