Sinner even stronger than heat stroke: «Very tough match»
(Gaia Piccardi) In the end the ghosts, as widely predicted by Shakespeare, see them Rune prince of Denmark. Jannik Sinner brings home the most dramatic tennis match of which he was the protagonist, unlike Wimbledon last year, when the illness he suffered cost him the defeat against Medvedev.
This time the malaise that manifests itself halfway through the second set, after having won the first 6-3 thanks to an initial break, it continues for interminable minutes, perhaps heatstroke on a scorching but not scorching Australian dayHowever, playing conditions on hard courts put both Rune and Sinner to the test. The alarm light comes on on 2-2, when the blue wastes two break points with two unforced errors, a forehand and a backhand: behavior not like Sinner, who moves around the court slowly, awkwardly, dragging his feet, in obvious physical difficulty.
At 4-3 for the Dane, with Sinner serving, the cracks widen: it is standing on his legs, in pain, evidently breathing with his mouth openas if gasping. The first break point for Rune materialized at that moment, 1h12′ after the start of the round of 16 of the Australian Open. It’s a double fault — once again an un-Sinner attitude (had we ever seen a double fault by the red baron on the break point? From memory, no) — to give the opponent the precious advantage. 5-3, 6-3.
On the set even, gloomy and disconsolate, without a word Sinner leaves the field. In his corner there is alarmthe friend-manager Alex Vittur goes down to the locker room to understand something more. Upon returning, the situation does not seem to have improved. «I’m struggling to move to the left» Jannik seems to say to the two coaches, Vagnozzi and Cahill. What’s worse, an unstoppable tremor in the hands shakes the player during the changes of court in the dramatic third set. The body is clearly busy fighting a virus, a situation of dehydration, a blockage in the stomach because Jannik is greenishwith an expression of nausea painted on his face.
-And then, at 1-1 in the third set, there is that third game that we will remember for a long time: 12 points, over 10′ of alternating emotions. Sinner goes down 14-40 on his serve. The physical fatigue takes away his clarity but he manages to cancel the first break point with a ground pound; on the second Rune calls him to the net, passes him with a lob, Jannik manages to recover and close the point with a volley, a house specialty. Players bent on their legs, ovation. There is a third break point, canceled with class: ace at 195 km per hour. Brother Mark stands up and supports him by making a fist.
Jannik looks destroyed, holds serve while clinging to the match tooth and nail. At 2-2 he returns to the brink of the abyss: two double faults in the game give his rival an opportunity to escape, an ace (198 km/h) stops it again. At 3-2, Sinner finally calls the physiotherapist onto the field. There is a consultation, the medical time out officially begins. Jannik succeeds from the field, like at Wimbledon. Long minutes disappear.
“Hold on!” they shout at him from the stands on the return leg. He has every intention of doing so. At 4-3forced by contingent difficulties to retreat far behind the baseline, Sinner suffers from Rune’s tennis. But he hesitates to land the decisive blow, he falters, he gives away. Sinner break point. A drop shot and a passer by Rune postpone the dream, but Jannik finds the strength to invent a narrow cross-court backhand and snatches a second. And there, guiltily, Holger sinks into the net. 5-3. Sinner is still alive and fighting with us, he has taken his destiny back into his own hands. Now the physiotherapist calls him Rune (Jannik’s wicked smile when he notices this). While waiting, Cahill shouts at his pupil to raise the canopy of the bench, to rest in the shade. Every drop of energy is called into report. When the game resumed, Jannik closed the serve to zero with an ace. 6-3.
In the fourth set there is the inconvenience of the net carabiner breaking. The repair takes time: the chair umpire has the good sense to send the players back to the locker rooms to wait in the shade. Other vital drops of energy. The 2-1 break then ends a very dense and at times tense affair at 6-2 (6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2), in which Sinner died and resurrected several times, demonstrating contempt for danger and, once again, enormous willingness to suffer. The qualities of champions. «Very tough match – he says -. I stayed there mentally, holding on to my serve and hoping for good things from the return. It had been a strange morning: I didn’t warm up, I struggled from the startI played quality tennis, the doctor helped me. I’m happy to still be in the tournament.” Wait in the quarterfinals on Wednesday the winner of the match between the host De Minaur and the little American phenomenon Michelsen. Nothing, from now on, can scare him anymore.
