Jannik Sinner appeared to be bothered by a back injury in his Indian Wells semifinal against Alexander Zverev.
Sinner beat Zverev 6-2, 6-4 to reach the Indian Wells final for the first time in his career.
Despite beating the world number four in less than an hour and a half, Sinner was spotted walking gingerly between points and clutching at his back in moments.
After his win over Zverev, Sinner revealed exactly what caused his back issue and how bad it was actually feeling.
Jannik Sinner suffered back injury in practice before semifinal at Indian Wells
Following his win over Zverev, Sinner spoke to Sky Sports where he explained that he was particularly happy with how he served in high pressure moments in the match.
“It was a great performance, very, very solid from the back of the court,” said Sinner. “I tried to go for it, going for shots, I felt like that today was one of the keys.
“Obviously against Sascha [Zverev], who has a huge serve, so I tried to mix it up also. You know trying to bother him a little bit with the visual part of the serve.
“From my side, I served very well, very precise in important moments, was a really, really solid performance and of course let’s see what’s coming tomorrow.”
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Former world number four Tim Henman then asked Sinner about both the hot conditions at Indian Wells and his back issue.
Sinner has previously struggled in hot conditions, but claimed that he did not find it an issue in his match against Zverev.
The Italian then revealed that he suffered an issue in his lower back when practicing his serve earlier on in the day, but Sinner believes that the issue has been solved.
“Yeah physical part talking about the heat it was good, I didn’t feel today a lot of issues,” Sinner said about the heat. “Even though today was not that physical, I thought it would be more physical, but it felt like when both serve really well it’s tough to get into the rhythm, very short points.
“Yeah, this morning I felt on one serve it bothered me a bit in the lower back, but look we kind of solved it. Of course, it’s good that I have some time until tomorrow.”
Jannik Sinner matches Andy Murray record after reaching Indian Wells final
Sinner has now reached his first final of the year, but it is actually back-to-back Masters 1000 finals for the world number two, who won his last ATP 1000 tournament at the Paris Masters last year.
The four-time Grand Slam champion has reached his first ever final at Indian Wells without dropping a set, with Sinner also winning the title in Paris last year in the same dominant fashion.
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As a result, Sinner has matched an Andy Murray record, with the Briton the last ATP player to reach back-to-back 1000 finals without dropping a set in 2016, which he achieved at the Cincinnati Open and Shanghai Masters.
Murray lost in the Cincinnati Open final to Marin Cilic, but he did go on to take the Shanghai Masters title.
Sinner will be hoping to go one better than Murray at Indian Wells, where he will play either Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev for the title.
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