Jannik Sinner Fittingly Ends Year With ATP Finals Crown - UBITENNIS

Jannik Sinner Fittingly Ends Year With ATP Finals Crown

By Steve Flink
16 Min Read
NITTO ATP FINALS 2024, Jannik Sinne, photo by Giampiero Sposito

After Jannik Sinner had secured his first Nitto ATP Finals crown in Turin with an emphatic 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Taylor Fritz, after watching him perform at the height of his powers in his last tournament of the season before trying to lead Italy to a second Davis Cup win in a row in the coming week, after marveling at the size, shape and stability of his game, all we can do is unabashedly admire what he is doing. 

No Italian had ever won the prestigious year end championships before, and he established himself as the first player to do it without losing a set since Ivan Lendl in 1986. The only players who have collected the Australian Open, U.S. Open and ATP Finals titles in the same season prior to Sinner were named Federer and Djokovic. Last, but certainly not least, Sinner gave up the fewest number games (33) of any champion ever at this tournament which always features an all star cast of competitors. No one pushed him beyond 6-4 in a set all week long. All five of his contests were essentially one-sided.

Sinner hit all of these milestones by concluding 2024 in style in front of the euphoric Italian fans. He has an astonishing 70-6 match record or a .921 winning percentage, including eight tournament victories. His Turin heroics were capped off by his final round win over an inspired but overmatched Fritz. The 23-year-old Sinner faced only one break point in the match, released 14 aces across only ten service games, did not serve a double fault, and connected with 71% of his first serves. He won 83% of his first serve points and 63% on his second delivery. Those are unbeatable numbers.

Both players were primed for this appointment from the outset. On their way to 2-2, Sinner served two love games while Fritz took eight of ten points on his serve. Sinner had the first opening when he reached 0-30 on the American’s serve in the fifth game, but Fritz swept four points in a row without missing a first serve. After Sinner held at 15 in the sixth game to knot the scoreline at 3-3, the two quietly ferocious competitors waged a war in the seventh game that featured four deuces. Fritz rallied from 15-40 and eventually had two game points, but Sinner converted on his fourth break point to build a 4-3 lead with a dazzling forehand drop shot winner. The top seed unleashed three aces in holding at love for 5-3. 

Fritz, however, was ceding no ground. He held at love in the ninth game and then battled tenaciously to stay in the set. Sinner was serving for it at 5-4, and he produced two more aces on his way to set point at 40-30. Fritz remained resolute, saving the set point on an errant forehand from Sinner and then advancing to break point— the only one he would have in the entire match.  But Sinner has an uncanny knack at these propitious moments of finding something extraordinary to dig his way out of danger. He sent a scorching first serve out wide that was absolutely unstoppable. He took the next point and then closed out the set with his tenth ace, again going out wide.

Surely Fritz felt deflated, even if he was doing a fine job of concealing any negativity. The two men stayed on serve across  the first four games of the second set, but then Sinner made his move. After Fritz saved a break point at 2-2, Sinner laced an unanswerable backhand down the line and moments later he had the break when Fritz drove a forehand long. Serving at 3-2, 30-30, Sinner drove another two-hander down the line for a winner and held at at 30 to reach 4-2.

Fritz held for 3-4 and gave himself one last chance by reaching deuce in the eighth game, but once more Sinner was unshakable and businesslike when it counted. He moved to game point and surged to 5-3 with his 14th and final ace. Fritz held at love in the ninth game, but Sinner unhesitatingly served it out at 5-4, holding at 15 with calm assurance. Altogether on serve over the course of two unwavering sets, Sinner won 43 of 56 points on serve to put the finishing touches on perhaps his most efficient tournament in all of 2024. As for Fritz, he became the first American to reach the final of this tournament since James Blake in 2006. Blake was also the last American to finish a season ranked among the top five in the world when he concluded 2006 at No. 4. Fritz ends this 2024 campaign at No. 4 as well after reaching his first Grand Slam tournament final at the U.S. Open in addition to his Turin exploits.

Turin in 2024 will be remembered above all else for showcasing the talent, temerity and professionalism of Sinner, who solidified his status as the No. 1 player in the world with success. In the Ilie Nastase Group, only one match was decided in three sets during round robin play. That was the encounter between Fritz and the fleet-footed Alex De Minaur. The sprightly Australian took the first set and reached break point at 3-3 in the second but thereafter Fritz’s aggression off the ground and his superior serve carried him to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory. Sinner opened his campaign with a solid 6-3, 6-4 win over De Minaur, followed by a similarly straightforward 6-4, 6-4 win over Fritz that was reminiscent of their final round duel five days later which had the identical scoreline. The Italian closed out his round robin work by defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4. It was the eighth triumph in his last nine meetings against Medvedev. Sinner now is in the lead 8-7 over the world No. 5.

And so Sinner at 3-0 and Fritz at 2-1 moved on to the semifinals. In the John Newcombe Group, Sascha Zverev set the pace with three nearly impeccable matches. He beat Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4 before defeating Casper Ruud 7-6 (3), 6-3. In his last match, Zverev prevailed over Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (5), 6-4. That one was a spectator’s smorgasbord. Zverev, of course, won the group with his 3-0 record. He did not lose his serve once in six sets. Moving on with him to the semifinals was Ruud, the popular Norwegian who had lost nine of his last eleven matches heading into Turin. Ruud sealed his semifinal place by beating Rublev in the only three set skirmish in the Newcombe Group. But Ruud was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the 2022 ATP Finals, and he managed to win two of his three matches this time around in Turin.

Ruud opened with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Alcaraz after trailing 2-5 in the second set. Alcaraz was suffering with an illness during this tournament which diminished his play, and wore a nasal strip all week to help his breathing. He improved slightly in his 6-3, 7-6 (8) win over Rublev and played some inspired tennis against Zverev, but his 1-2 record was not enough to earn him a semifinal slot for the second year in a row. Ruud finished second in the group behind Zverev with his 2-1 record.

Sinner was ruthlessly efficient in his 6-1, 6-2 semifinal drubbing of Ruud. At 3-1 in the first set he battled back from double break point down, benefitting from a muffed backhand passing shot from the Norwegian at 30-40. Sinner rolled through the rest of the set. In the second set he was behind 1-2, 0-30 but held on and never looked back, taking five games in a row. It was a stellar performance.

Preceding that Sinner-Ruud semifinal was the tournament’s most suspenseful match between Fritz and Zverev. For the first and only time in the tournament, the German lost his serve in the opening set. But he fought back to take the second. In the third set, both players had opportunities. Zverev had Fritz down 0-40 with the American serving at 2-2 but Fritz erased those break points with an ace, a service winner and a well executed forehand volley. Zverev found himself down 15-40 at 3-4 but served his way out of that corner boldly. 

Finally, Zverev had a couple of break points at 5-5 but Fritz was unyielding. Fittingly, that match went to a third set tie-break, but it was an anti-climax. Fritz was first rate and did not make a single mistake, but Zverev failed to keep up his end of the bargain, making three glaring unforced errors as he fell seven points to three. Fritz deservedly reached the final with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3), victory. It was the fourth time in a row he had beaten Zverev, who had looked invulnerable all week long.

Nonetheless, Zverev closes the 2024 season at No. 2 in the world. He worked hard to attain that status, but he is not really the second best player in the world. To be sure, Zverev has an impressive 69-21 match record for the year. He won two Masters 1000 titles during his most consistent season. But his loss to Fritz was a continuation of a familiar pattern for the 27-year-old. He led two sets to love and was up a break against Dominic Thiem in the 2020 U.S. Open final. Later he served for the match in the fifth set before losing in a tiebreak. This year, he was poised to reach the Australian Open final when he took the first two sets from Daniil Medvedev, but he lost. In the French Open final, he was ahead of Alcaraz two sets to one, but he bowed in five sets as his game deteriorated decidedly over the last two sets. At Wimbledon he won the first two sets from Fritz in the round of 16 but that one got away.

To be sure, Zverev is a great player who will have more chances in the next three to five years to finally get on the board and capture a Grand Slam title. But, for the time being at least, he is the game’s most exasperating upper echelon player. He simply loses an inordinate number of matches that he could win. Fritz was outstanding in their semifinal at Turin but Zverev collapsed in the third set tie-break when everything was at stake. He is a fragile competitor despite all of his success.

Sinner and Alcaraz are clearly the two best players in the world. They split the four major championships. Alcaraz’s feat of taking Roland Garros and Wimbledon back to back was extraordinary. Zverev won tons of matches but took only two titles all year long, while Alcaraz was victorious at four tournaments. In addition to prevailing at the French Open and on the British lawns, he won the Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells and also toppled Sinner in a superb final at Beijing. In my book, he is No. 2.

It is a source of fascination to all learned tennis observers that Alcaraz is 3-0 this year head to head over Sinner. In my view, that statistic is somewhat misleading. Sinner crushed the Spaniard in the first set of the Indian Wills final before bowing 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. In the penultimate round at the French Open, Sinner won eight of the first ten games to move ahead by a set and a break. He lost the second set and yet still led two sets to one. But an unbending Alcaraz prevailed in five sets over his foremost rival. Finally, in Beijing, Sinner was serving with a 3-0 final set tie-break lead before an almost unconscious Alcaraz spectacularly swept seven points in a row in a blaze of glory.

Sinner led in his rivalry with the Spaniard 4-3 before losing those last three matches this year. That was the only blemish on Sinner’s excellent 2024 record. Of his six losses, half have occurred at the hands of Alcaraz. I have no doubt that Sinner will soon start holding his own again against the audacious Spaniard. Had he faced Alcaraz in Turin, Sinner would almost surely have been the victor. Sinner did not lose once before the quarterfinals this year in 15 tournaments. It was entirely fitting that he won in Turin because by doing so he was underlining his supremacy as the greatest player in the game of tennis.  

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