Martin Landaluce: The day after hurts even more—he couldn’t even manage to help Jannik Sinner

Now that the night has passed, Martin Landaluce’s regret is probably even greater. The young Spaniard came within a hair’s breadth of one of the greatest feats of his career, pushing Alexander Zverev to the brink in the first round of the Erste Bank Open, the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna, and even earning four match points. In the end, however, the German managed to pull through and win with a score of 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(11), keeping alive his hopes of overtaking Jannik Sinner in the rankings as early as the next update.

Sascha’s victory was a hard-fought one, coming only at the end of a heart-stopping third-set tiebreak, in which the aspiring ATP No. 1—who currently remains in second place in the rankings—had to draw on all his experience to avoid one of the most sensational defeats of the season.

Landaluce played without any fear of his opponent, repeatedly putting the pre-match favorite in trouble and coming close to a victory that would have had significant repercussions on the battle for the top spot in the world rankings. Zverev’s elimination would, in fact, have been excellent news for Sinner, who would have retained the top spot for at least another week. The German, however, thanks to this victory, can continue his run in the Austrian tournament and keep chasing the South Tyrolean champion’s lead.

The situation is now crystal clear: Sinner’s reign—on hold due to injury and with no official matches since his triumphant Wimbledon final (played against and won over the German)—hangs by a thread. In fact, Zverev need only reach the semifinals of the Vienna tournament to overtake Sinner and return to the top of the world rankings. A goal that, in light of what we saw in the first round, had seemed in jeopardy for long stretches of the match, especially when Landaluce earned as many as four chances to close out the match.