ATP Finals: Jannik Sinner ahead by one set against Taylor Fritz

Jannik Sinner-Taylor Fritz 6-4

The ATP Finals could not have started better for Jannik Sinner. Indeed, on the indoor concrete center court of Turin's Inalpi Arena, the world number one è won the first set 6-4 against Taylor Fritz, world number five, after forty-one minutes of play.

After four quick games on serve, Sinner began to challenge Fritz on serve in the fifth game. The U.S., however, è well to rise from 0-30, taking a 3-2 lead. The fateful seventh game forò è the good one for the blue: Fritz nullifies three break points, two of them consecutive, but nothing canò on the fourth, converted by Sinner with a splendid bunt. The South Tyrolean confirmed the break lead (5-3) and kept it until the final 6-4 with which he filed the first set.

Sinner, number 1 overall in world tennis, will try to become the first Italian to win the last tournament on the men’s professional circuit of the year and has every chance to do so. The previous record between the two protagonists is in fact 3 wins to 1 in favor of Sinner and the last match was four days ago, when in the round robin the South Tyrolean rifilò a double 6-4 to Fritz. Sinner also has to dispel a tabù last year he beat Novak Djokovic in the round robin and then lost outright to the Serb in the final. This year Jannik himself, in the immediate aftermath of his dominating semifinal against Casper Ruud, è hoped to do better.

But there’è another precedent from this year between Sinner and Fritz that puts a smile on the Italian’s face, and è of course that of the historic US Open final last September 8, won by Jannik again without losing a set: 6-3 6-4 7-5. The other two precedents both concern the Indian Wells Masters 1000: in the round of 16 in 2021 Fritz won 6-4 6-3, in the quarterfinals in 2023 Sinner won 6-4 4-6 6-4.