Jannik Sinner stellar, beats Novak Djokovic for the first time
Victory for Jannik Sinner
After the usual thrilling entrance, with the Pala Alpitour ready to push Sinner as never before, the match starts off strong for the serving players, with three straight games to nil and eight aces in five turnovers. Djokovic gets off to a rocket start and è the first to get a chance, canceled like a champion by Jannik with an outside ace: after 25 minutes we are 3-3. The’intensity’and the number of exchanges grow point by point and at the half hour comes the first break point also for the blue, who per’is repaid in his own coin. Nole puts in a winning first and stays ahead, forcing Sinner shortly after to serve to stay in the set.
At the climax forò the Serb uncharacteristically concedes too much, first with two errors at 5-4 15-30 in his favor, then getting recovered from 40-0 down at 5-5 and beginning to get nervous with the crowd, which cheers him between first and second. Jannik thanked, played a crazy first set ending and after almost an’hour secured it 7-5 by winning all the last nine points. The streak lengthens to ten with the first point of the second set, but Djokovic è good at stopping the bleeding and pulling ahead. The start of the second fraction looked like a photocopy of the first, with games well managed by the player at bat.
Unlike the first set però there are no break balls, with the services still dominant. Of break balls not even the’shadow, but if on the one hand the world no°1 starts bickering with the audience, on the other hand our no°4 doesn’t make a dent, remaining as always ice cold but unleashing his firepower. Jannik è’s serve is sublime and accompanies him all the way to the tie-break, in which there are many mini-breaks but in the end, as often happens in these situations, è Djokovic prevails. Decisive was one of Sinner’s very rare errors, which però Nole treasures and with which he snatches the second set at the tie-break.
Even in the third partial, the intensity’of the match shows no signs of diminishing, with a prolonged domination of the serves. Until the fifth game, no break balls are seen (the last one dates back to the 11th game of the first set), then suddenly the level of tenni, if possible, even more vertiginously. First Sinner attempted to stretch and took a 4-2 lead, but Djokovic clung to him and, despite a couple of feats by Jannik, hooked him back up at 4-4. The show è magnificent and certainly the various Fagioli, Sonego, Volandri and Roberta Vinci, among the VIPs present this evening at the Pala Alpitour, will be happy. Once again è the tie-break to decide a mind-blowing match, which lasted more than three hours, and Jannik Sinner plays it in a crazy way. It ends 7-5 6-7(5) 7-6(2) for the world no°4, the pride of tennis’Italy. Jannik flies to the top of the green group, but still does not è qualify for the semifinals.
Giovanni Pelazzo
