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*Sinner 6-3, 5-3 de Minaur
Sinner shows his deft side with a lovely sliced backhand drop shot that has de Minaur scrabbling from the back of the court. He holds comfortably to go one game away, can de Minaur make him serve it out at least?
Sinner 6-3, 4-3 de Minaur*
Maybe Jannik Sinner is a fan of Mark Rylance and his endless hat doffing and candlelit politicking? We could be wrapped up in time for Wolf Hall’s long anticipated return here. As I type that the big man prangs an easy backhand wide to let de Minaur of the hook. Rylance’s Cromwell would never do such a thing. This is all getting a bit Alan Partridge. de Minaur hangs in there and holds, the DJ cranks the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams. Alan is that you?
*Sinner 6-3, 4-2 the Minaur
Spirited stuff from de Minaur who chases the ball around the court like a terrier. The players’ sneakers squeaking like a moshpit of mice as the rally goes deeper and deeper. Now thende Minaur has his man 0-30 down. Big serve needed, and delivered. 15-30. And again, Sinner serve out wide and then followed up with a driving forehand to level things up. 30-30. Sinner finding his serving boots when he needs to. 40-30. Gah! Sinner then messes up a simple overhead volley, an absolute lollipop to give de Minaur another slurp at deuce. Bish and Bosh. Sinner escapes the game and consolidates the break.
Sinner 6-3, 3-2 de Minaur*
After a lengthy delay we are back. The Sinner charge is halted by a long rally that ends in the Italian splooting one long. He still has two break points… make that one as a backhand catches the net. Deuce! de Minaur gets level with a beefy serve down the T. Sinner has him on the hop next point though and now has break point on second serve… he returns with a punishing forehand at de Minaur’s toes and seals the break at the fourth time of asking.
Sinner breaks!
Sinner starts to make his move in the second. de Minaur struggles to contain him in the rallies and ends up going for too much too soon, splatting a forehand wide and then getting pinned by a thunderous passing shot at the net. Sinner has 0-40 but there is a short delay whilst there is a medical situation in the stands.
*Sinner 6-3, 2-2 de Minaur
Sinner sends down his third ACE to close out a quick and painless game to level things up.
Sinner 6-3, 1-2 de Minaur*
Sinner cranks up the pressure with some stonking ball striking. He has de Minaur at 0-30 but again the Aussie shows his resolve with three dogged points in a row. Have some of that! de Minaur stays with Sinner on the baseline and then unleashes an exocet forehand of his own that Sinner can’t keep a lid on. This second set has seen the quality and intensity cranked. de Minaur holds!
Liquid Tennis
*Sinner 6-3, 1-1 de Minaur
Hold that thought, de Minaur strikes back immediately, hustling and harrying to break the tall Italian’s serve.
Here we go with the second set
Sinner 6-3, 1-0 de Minaur*
Sinner breaks in the first game of the second set, the wheels could come off quite quickly here for de Minaur.
de Minaur will be disappointed that he got ahead with the early break and then played a loose couple of games straightaway to hand the initiative back. Sinner then moved through the gears and the set flew out of sight in a flash.
Jannik Sinner takes the first set 6-3
There’s a kerfuffle as a few members of the crowd try to take a sneaky picture but with the flash still on. Duh. Sinner pays it never mind and goes to 30-0. de Minaur then takes one of the longer rallies for the first time in the match. He’s known for being able to hunt down everything like a truffle hungry hog and showed it for the first time there. Tenacious de Minaur. Sinner lands a tricky backhand volley to bring up set point and there it is – a forehand shank on the run sees the Italian and world numero uno take the first set.
Sinner 5-3 de Minaur* de Minaur is desperate to hold serve, if only to give him some momentum for the next set. He tries to go big on the second serve, too bigand coughs up a double fault for 15-15. Touch! That’ll do his confidence the world of good, de Minaur stretches low with Andrex soft hands to pull off a Becker-esque volley. Beautiful. He holds and so Sinner will serve for the first set.
*Sinner 5-2 the Minaur
Sinner on the verge of the first set after holding to love. de Minaur started brightly and got the early break but since then it has been one way traffic with Sinner finding his range and the Aussie struggling to stay with him in the rallies.
Sinner 4-2 de Minaur*
Big game for de Minaur incoming. He needs to hold firm and stay with Sinner and his pounding groundstrokes. Two loose backhands in a row from Sinner help him to 30-0. A rushed approach from de Minaur goes long to give Sinner a sniff. A couple of MONSTER forehands turn the game on its head and give Sinner a chance of a double-break. de Minaur squeaks to deuce but then hits a soft forehand halfway up the net. Advantage Sinner. There’s the double break! de Minaur was asking for trouble by floating up some loopy backhands that get absolutely pongoed back by Sinner. Too hot too handle eventually and the Aussie sees the game snatched off him.
*Sinner 3-2 the Minaur
Sinner races to 40-0, making de Minaur scrap back and forth the bassline, grinding him down and then pulling the trigger. That’ll do – a big serve out wide sees de Minaur cloth his return into the net. The crowd whoop their man after the early scare.
Sinner 2-2 de Minaur * (*Denotes current server)
de Minaur slams down an ACE to go 15-0 up. The crowd come to life as Sinner forces his opponent to punch long to take it to 15-30. A battle of the backhand slices sees Sinner get two break points of his own. Sublime! A cross court passing shot whistles past the approaching de Minaur and lands an inch inside the tramline. Sinner breaks back immediately and gives it the old ‘Henmania’ mini fist pump.
*Sinner 1-2 the Minaur
Rallies elongating, there’s been plenty of debate about the weight of the balls this year and how they are conducive to even longer rallies. Time for Sinner to feel some pressure as de Minaur gets him to 30-30 and then forces the error to carve out the first break point of the night! He’s got it, Sinner approaches the net but plonks a backhand into the tramline. de Minaur has an early break! Game on.
Sinner 1-1 de Minaur*
de Minaur feels the heat of Sinner’s groundstrokes straight away and fluffs a backhand slice long. Nervy stuff from the Aussie who wriggles off the 30-30 hook with an ace and then breathes a sigh of relief as Sinner slams a backhand into the net cord. He’s on the board.
First Set: *Sinner 1-0 de Minaur (*Denotes current server)
Sinner rattles off his first game to love with a couple of big serves and short rallies. A confident start from the home man. Over to you Alex…
We’ll have some warm ups and then it’ll be game time. 23 year old Sinner is cranking up his lissom limbs in a blue polo shirt and white baseball hat. 25 year old de Minaur is in blue too but he’s got a navy cap on backwards as is his wont. The Aussie is a good three inches shorter than the 6ft3in Sinner who is about to put his impressive wingspan to good use by serving first. Let’s play!
The fantastically named Renaud Lichtenstein is umpiring this evening’s match and there’s a dance show with some heavy strobing taking place on court. The tv screens now show a bouncing tennis ball complete with heart beat sound effect booming around the stadium. It’s all very razzle dazzle.
Here are the players! They head out on court separately, de Minaur is warmly received and Sinner strolls on to court, across a massive picture of his own face to huge cheers and applause.
The smartest dressed painter and decorators in Turin:
The stadium is bathed in the sort of blue light that makes it look like a CSI unit are on the hunt for some incriminating forensics. I’m half expecting Taggart to poke his head out and give a rollocking to a chap in a white boiler suit. The players are due out any moment.
How it works: There are two groups of four in the round robin style tournament, with the semi-finals and final taking place next Saturday and Sunday.
Sinner’s group includes Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, American Taylor Fritz and Australian debutant Alex de Minaur.
Fritz got the better of a hot-headed and racket totalling Medvedev in straight sets earlier on:
The other group will see 2024 French Open and Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz up against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, Norway’s Casper Ruud and Russia’s Andrey Rublev.
I’ve been enjoying the Paul Mescal-ification of the pre promo. Look at these fellas. Work it. That’s before we get to the short shorts.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the Inalpi Arena in Turin (by way of a sofa in south London) and the ATP World Tour Finals. We’ve got a week of top notch tennis in store as the eight best singles players in the world go squeaky sneakered toe to squeaky sneakered toe in northern Italy.
Novak Djokovic pulled out of the tournament last week with a decidedly vague “ongoing injury” and so there will be a new name on the trophy this year. Last year’s beaten finalist Jannik Sinner is the favourite to have his name etched into the silverware, the Italian number one and local favourite has dominated the men’s game this year, scooping both the Australian and US Open titles with his thrillingly pure ball striking and penchant for the big moment.
The curly fringed Italian’s year has not been without controversy though, an ongoing doping dispute still lingers and threatens to take the shine off a gilded twelve months that has already seen him confirmed as the number one ranked player in the men’s game come the end of the year.
Tonight’s opponent is Aussie Alex de Minaur, prince of the punishing rally and a dogged defender of the baseline who is capable of pilfering points against anyone on his day. He’ll need to be at his best to take down Sinner this evening, their ATP head to head reads seven to zilch in favour of the Italian.
We’ll get into all that and more over the next few hours, drop me a line at the email on the left tramline of this page if you are tuning in, I’ll be glad of your thwick thwocking thoughts and theories.
The match is due to start at 7.30pm GMT (ish).
