Sinner, the Atp Finals and the tiebreak key factor
Even in the final with Alcaraz, Jannik showed the ability to handle that crucial moment to the best of his ability and make the set his own, which favoured him to victory
It is well known that Jannik Sinner is not one to exult in a blatant manner, but yesterday 'he threw himself on the ground and this shows how much he cared: to win this match at home is beautiful, especially after the defeat at the Internazionali in Rome': this is how coach Simone Vagnozzi commented on Jannik's triumph at the Atp finals against Carlos Alcaraz. Yes, but where did he win this tight, head-to-head match, which ended 7-6, 7-5?
The further he goes on his journey, the more the tiebreak in Sinner's challenges has become a key factor that brings together all his qualities: playing the decisive points well, using his serve well, putting pressure on his opponent. Doing it with Alcaraz has a far greater coefficient of difficulty, but that was the case yesterday. Right from winning the chance to play it, that tiebreak: on 6-5 and serve on his side, in fact, Sinner offered a break point, the first and only one of the set, which coincided with set point. He missed the first ball, accompanied by the worried murmur of the crowd, and then threw a second-ball bomb at 187 km per hour: Alcaraz, surprised, did not control his response, throwing out his backhand. A risk, a courage, a pressure on the other side of the court, which he explained in the press conference: "I thought: I'd rather lose that point than let him win it.
Then in the tiebreak Sinner raised the bar. As he has said in the past, he plays it carrying with him the experience of the whole set and knows what to do, which angles to favour, where to direct his serves, which solutions - even extreme ones - to bet on. In the central phase of the tiebreak, at 4-3 in his favour, the minibreak against the Spaniard that gave him the 5-3 was decisive: a phenomenal recovery on a short ball with a millimetric lob that forced Carlos to run back and make him one in turn, exposing himself to Jannik's smash... and to the explosion of the crowd. Equally extraordinary - and extremely difficult in such a delicate moment - the point that brought Sinner to set point: to an attack by Alcaraz, he replied with a disorienting and calibrated lift lob that left the Spaniard salivating, and there was another deafening roar. The seal on the tiebreak, finally, a serve out. Carlos sends the reply into the corridor. Practically from 4-3 Sinner did not allow his opponent to counter. Winning. And it's just "olé, olé, olé, Sinner, Sinner".
