Jannik Sinner’s on-court dominance over the last few months has taken the tennis world by storm, leaving every onlooker in awe of what the Italian is achieving. The World No.1 is currently on a 27-match win streak, sweeping all the Masters titles this year. The Italian’s staggering performances have earned him praise from all quarters, and now a former Italian ATP player, who once coached the great Monica Seles, believes Sinner’s understanding will see him work wonders.
Claudio Pistolesi, a former Italian ATP player turned coach, believes Sinner’s ability surpasses all Italian players, past and present. He made a light-hearted analogy that captured Sinner’s current form.
“I previously made a joke that was well received. I said that if they had a dog race now, Sinner’s dog would win, because now people have the feeling that he’s capable of understanding and conquering anything,” said Pistolesi.
Even though Pistolesi did not have a stellar career himself, with a career-best ranking of 71, the Italian did guide the great Monica Seles to a Grand Slam title at the 1997 Australian Open. In his dialogue, he opened up about how Sinner was the center of attention and criticism alike, and how that benefited other Italians, such as Lorenzo Musetti, Luciano Darderi, and Flavio Cobolli.
Pistolesi is not alone in marveling at Sinner, as several of the tennis elite have showered the current No.1 with praise. Former World No.1 Andy Roddick compared Sinner’s on-court problem-solving ability to that of AI, noting that the Italian focuses on precision control of his shots. At the last Wimbledon, John McEnroe made a somewhat controversial comparison, calling Sinner a “mirror image” of Novak Djokovic during their semifinal clash, which the Italian won in straight sets.
However, despite his dominance, Sinner found his toughest challenger in the current streak in another former Italian Open champion, someone who once held a distinct head-to-head advantage over him.
Will Jannik Sinner’s Streak Be Snapped in His Home Event in Rome?
Of all the places where Sinner would have least wanted his streak to end, Rome, his home soil, would have been one of them. There seems to be a chance the streak is broken as Sinner returns to court on Saturday to finish his semifinal against Daniil Medvedev, as rain halted play with the scoreline 6-2, 5-7, 4-2 in favor of the Italian. However, the actual performance on the court was far from what the score suggests.
The start was strong for Sinner as he took the first set 6-2 in his usual dominant fashion, and it looked like business as usual. But Medvedev, who was the top-ranked player in the world and once had a 6-0 head-to-head lead against Sinner, showed his mettle, racing to a 3-0 lead in the second set. That coincided with Sinner’s increasing health issues, which saw him suffer from an anxiety attack and throw up on the court. However, being the champion that he is, he made the second set competitive, eventually losing it 7-5. He showed his clutch mentality and got the crucial break of serve, having a 4-2 lead in the third set, before the game was suspended.
He does have the lead, but Sinner needs to be wary of his Russian opponent, who is capable of pulling something incredible after a restart. However, the streak that Sinner has been on has been nothing short of extraordinary itself. Since his Qatar Open loss against Jakub Mensik, the Italian has won 27 straight matches, losing only two sets in the process. In Rome, he has also broken Djokovic’s long-standing ATP Masters win streak record and made the record his own with 32-straight victories.
Given the home crowd will be behind him, Sinner will be expected to close the game out, in which case he will get to complete his set of clay-court Masters events, having won in Monte-Carlo and Madrid this year.
