Jannik Sinner is not just a true physical specimen, but clearly a tactical mastermind too.
That is, after his impressive alterations made to make Taylor Fritz‘s day even tougher when they met in the US Open final last weekend.
Pointed out by pundit Marion Bartoli, she was really impressed by the first thing that the Italian did to quell the threat of his opponent.
However, he was not finished there, and made one more slight change to finally tip the match in his favour for good.
Marion Bartoli left stunned by Jannik Sinner’s bold US Open decision
Speaking live on Sky Sports just last night, given arguably the best seats in the house just behind the two players, Bartoli was perfectly on hand to provide an insightful commentary on all the finer details going on that we might have missed.
She noticed two particular alterations made by Jannik Sinner which left Fritz especially bamboozled, replying to the main commentator’s praise for the Italian.
Speaking about the American first, she noted: ‘Absolutely Jonathan, he’s right in front of me right now looking at the screen and shaking his head as if he’s telling himself ‘What do I have to do to break him?’
‘The stat really stood out for me in that second set was Jannik Sinner had just one unforced error when you know how much risk they’re taking and how hard they hit the ball it shows you the form he is in right now.
‘Again just look at his court position, he’s stood by the ball kid. It’s extraordinary returning, extraordinary to change that mid-match.’
Just minutes later, she then noticed another change he had made: ‘Jannik Sinner has had two rackets that came back from the stringer, he has asked for looser tension just to get a little bit more from the racket out of the groundstrokes. He feels he needs to go for a little more power as well.’
Fritz admitted he made one crucial mistake in the US Open final, which Sinner’s first alteration only made even worse.
Jannik Sinner is near-unstoppable on hard courts
Although it was already clear before Sunday’s US Open final, Sinner only reaffirmed the notion by claiming the title that he is the best male hard-court player in the world at the moment.
After all, who could dispute it, given he is now the proud holder of both Grand Slam titles in Melbourne and New York?
And that’s without mentioning his proficiency in the Masters 1000 events too, having won in Miami and Cincinnati, another two big hard-court competitions.
Throughout 2024, Sinner has lost just six times, and it’s impressive that despite it dominating the bulk of the tour, only two of these came on hard courts.
With a whole host of events on this surface upcoming now too, who knows what this young superstar might accomplish before the year is up.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
