Yes, Sinner Grand Slam can win him seriously
From Zverev to Zverev. When Jannik Sinner loses in five sets against German in the round of 16 of the US Open 2023, many consider the blue still far from the tennis Olympus. The number 1 at that moment is Alcaraz, who has recently beaten Djokovic in the final in Wimbledon, with Nole who will recover his scepter winning his 24th Slam in New York. Some experts look at the finger and not the moon, pitting judgments: the Spaniard has more solutions, more “hand”, more physical and on the field he is not afraid of anything.
From that defeat, Jannik played 108 games winning 100! The last with the German, who earned him the third title of the Grand Slam of his young career. In the middle of this domain, the blue also collected the ATP Finals, three Masters 1000 (Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai), two Davis cups and the king of tennis king.
To rattle his records, a bulleting would be needed. The first since Rafa’s time to successfully defend the title of his first Slam. Three finals and as many titles in the Major field: before him there were only Connors, Borg, Edberg, Kuerten, Federer, Wawrinka and Alcaraz before him. Nobody like him, however, from number 1: since he climbed at the top he has won 47 matches out of 50, or 94% of those played. And against the top 10 it does not lose a set from the tie-break in the decisive set against Alcaraz in Beijing (October 2024): since then, 22 sets played and as many losers.
But more than the numbers (monstrous) and successes (he has already won how much Murray), it is the way he has reached and obtained them that amazed. If the victory of last year against Medvedev had been a surprise in the ways and in the form -lesson in Djokovic in the semifinal, a 0-2 reassembled against the Russian in the final -, and the triumph to the US Open a consecration, the bis in Melbourne It takes on decidedly more defined contours. Sinner is making another job compared to his colleagues.
On another planet
The final with Zverev, the strongest tennis player of the last ten years without Major titles on the bulletin board, has never been questioned, as well as the previous rounds against Shelton, Rune and Minaur. The feeling is that to win the Happy Slam, Jannik has not even had to express 100% of his potential. Decidedly discouraging for his opponents. “At this moment it is found in a universe different from that of anyone else,” Zverev admitted after the lesson.
The difference with the rest of the known world is from a mental point of view, but also technical. It is true that the manual skills of Alcaraz or Musetti will always make the miracle shout, however, underestimating Sinner’s tennis talent is a mistake not to be made. The South Tyrolean strikes better than everyone from every area of the field and only near the network shows, less and less to say the truth, greater uncertainties. When it has added solidity also near the Net, what will remain to others?
On the level of the mentality it is already today at the Big Three level. For the choices he made, for the path he has taken and because in both perimeters he never made himself influenced by the results or from external factors. In the head of his opponents, neither the same serenity is perceived, nor the same ability to plan progress and objectives, the Alcaraz house in the first place.
The Grand Slam
That’s why, waiting for new pretenders (Fonseca?), Dreaming is not blasphemy. Donald Budge, almost ninety years ago in 1938, and twice (1962 and 1969) Rod Lavener: they are (and only them) tennis players capable of winning the four Grand Slam titles in the same year. Many have tried, but for 56 years everyone has failed. Djokovic in the final in New York in 2021 is the one that went closest to: it was all set to celebrate the feat, but Medvedev won three sets to zero and goodbye immortality.
A company that, over time, has seen the rules and scenarios change often. Once 3 out of 4 majors were played on the grass and for several decades the Australian Open, literally on the other side of the world, could not count on the same prestige and charm of the other Slam, with the direct consequence that they were often snubbed by the best, discouraged to face the long trip.
Since the late 1980s, the “Grand Slam” theme has returned to tickle the larger champions, but the difficulty of imposing itself on three very different surfaces has made the particularly complicated project to complete. Federer would have been the ideal candidate in his first years of domination, but on the ground of Paris he was in the meantime landed a certain Nadal.
Now that two out of three Martians have stopped, and the third seems to be in difficulty on long distances, imagining that Sinner can take a clear path between Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Us Open is complicated, but not impossible. For characteristics and results, the favorite will be on grass and concrete. The beaten earth of the red cathedral remains, where she still signed her first ring, stopping in the quarterfinals only at the hands of his majesty Nadal. Well that Wada (appeal to the Tas set on 16 and 17 April) between him and all the others there is a difficult gap to fill in a few months.
Who after Cahill?
The Jannik staff is perfect as it is and team wins does not change. The arrivals of Marco Panichi (athletic trainer) and URISES BADIO (physiotherapist) represented the classic icing on the cake, but Sinner ran away from Melbourne that 2024 will be, with a good chance, the last year on the Darren Cahill circuit. It is therefore necessary to be a figure to be joined to Simone Vagnozzi, the first protagonist of the growth at very high levels of Jannik and an essential element also in the future.
The Toto Coach has already started on the pages of today’s newspapers. From the beautiful suggestion of Andre Agassi (trained precisely by Cahill himself) to Goran Ivanisevic, also passing through Andreas Seppi, a former top 20 blue and youthful idol of the current number one in the world. Someone has also made the names of Boris Becker and Ivan Ljubicic, but Sinner and Alex Vittur, friend-manager-designer, will know as always to make the best decision. First rumors of tensions also come from the Alcaraz clan and Murcia’s talent would really commit a sensational own goal if he gave up Juan Carlos Ferrero.