Jannik Sinner, Paolo Bertolucci says: “Like a driver who’s been in an accident”
On Sunday evening, Jannik Sinner was crowned Wimbledon champion for the second consecutive time. The Italian, who defeated Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s final, beat (not without some difficulty) Alexander Zverev in this year’s final at the London tournament.
Yet for Jannik Sinner, his Wimbledon campaign had begun with a hard-fought victory over Miomir Kecmanović, and at Roland Garros, there had been the drama of Juan Manuel Cerundolo. “Sinner is like a driver who’s been in a car accident. When you start driving again, you go slower at first. There’s a bit of fear. But after a few days, you get back up to your previous speed. Let’s look at this Wimbledon: Sinner started off ‘slowly,’ so to speak. But between the semifinals and the final, he played some truly great tennis,” Paolo Bertolucci analyzed in *La Gazzetta dello Sport*.
“He’s firmly at the top, and his reign is destined to last. Because he’s still young; he wakes up in the morning and focuses on improving one centimeter at a time, does the right things, and is supported by a very professional team of highly capable and attentive people. This is a formula. Sinner has found the winning formula and will continue on this path. I can’t see any flaws; there are millions of strengths in how he conducts himself on and off the court. He’s an example to everyone.”
“He arrived at Wimbledon with some doubts in his mind,” the Italian legend pointed out. In the end, though, he solved the problem brilliantly: in the final at Church Road, he faced Sascha Zverev instead of Carlos Alcaraz, and while some might think the match was easier, it wasn’t.”
“Zverev in the final—especially in the first two sets, or two and a half sets—probably played the best tennis of his life. He certainly had never played at such a high level on grass before. Sinner was fantastic; he held his ground and didn’t back down a single millimeter,” Bertolucci concluded.
