The love affair between Jannik Sinner and the Sofia Open shows no signals of ending anytime soon with the Italian battling his way to the title once again on Sunday.
The world No.14 was given a stern test before overcoming French veteran Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-4, who has reached at least one ATP final every season since 2005. Sinner broke his opponent twice with both of those occurring when Monfils was serving at the start of each set. Impressively, he won 25 out of 27 points behind his first serve and was unbroken throughout the match.
“It was not an easy match,” Sinner said afterwards. “The level was high today. We had long, long rallies, it was really physical as well. I’m happy to be a winner again in Sofia. I think in the crucial moments I was just more lucky than him.”
En route to what is only the fourth title of his career, Sinner didn’t drop a set in the entire tournament. Prior to Monfils, he also defeated fifth seed Filip Krajinović, James Duckworth and Egor Gerasimov. The 20-year-old has also become the sixth player this year to win a third ATP trophy and the first from his country to defend a Tour title since 1976.
Following his latest match in the Bulgarian capital, Sinner paid tribute to Monfils who is 15 years older than him.
“We had some great fight, great matches and obviously congrats to you and your team,” he said to Monfils during the trophy presentation. “Tennis needs you—really needs you—so thanks for staying here in tough moments like this without crowd. I know you don’t like that, but soon, hopefully, everything will be back to normal. So good luck to you.”
The victory will move Sinner to 10th in the FedEx ATP Race To Turin on Monday where the ATP Finals will be held for the first time. Only the eight highest-ranked players will be eligible to play in the season-ending event with four of those available slots already secured by Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.
“We (my team) try to improve day after day and hopefully we can have a great finish of the season,” Sinner concluded.
There will be little time for the rising star to rest with the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells getting underway next week. He is set to be seeded 10th in the draw and will be bidding to reach his second Masters 1000 final of the season after Miami.
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