Zverev prods Jannik Sinner: "All too easy for him…"

Alexander Zverev is at it again: the German tennis player is ready to give Jannik Sinner a battle in the Madrid Masters 1000 final. The Teutonic athlete has not beaten the Italian world number one since 2023: since then the Azzurro has won his next 8 matches, losing just two sets. Zverev, comforted by his excellent run in Madrid, is feeling confident and hopes that the gap with the South Tyrolean has narrowed.

“He’s a pretty quiet guy and at the moment he’s enjoying tennis. In fact, I think tennis is far too easy for him right now…Maybe on Sunday I’ll make it a little bit harder for him…In the last eight matches I haven’t won much. He is definitely the best player in the world and I will try to give him a hard time.”

Zverev in Madrid has won two titles, in 2018 and 2021, and is in his fourth final at the Caja Magica. Better than him in this tournament has only Rafa Nadal with seven. Sinner, on the other hand, is in his first appearance in the final.

Zverev’s path to the Madrid final has been convincing, and the German seems to have regained confidence and solidity compared to previous weeks. Significant, in this sense, was the manner in which he liquidated Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals: 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes, with clear dominance especially in the first set. In the semifinals he then overcame Belgium’s Alexander Blockx, one of the surprises of the tournament, with a score of 6-2, 7-5 after an hour and thirty-seven minutes of play.

For his part, Sinner comes to the appointment on the back of a simply extraordinary streak of results. His victory in the semifinals over Arthur Fils – a clear 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 26 minutes – enabled him to hit a historic record: he became the youngest tennis player ever to reach at least one final in all nine Masters 1000s currently on the calendar, a milestone that before him had only been achieved by Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, but not so soon.