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Sinner doesn’t let himself get down – tennis

He struggled for a long time, but finally prevailed: Jannik Sinner. © APA / afp / MARTIN BUREAU

Once again, Jannik Sinner has shown what mental strength he has. He made an impressive return on Monday in the first round of the French Open.

It is a fact that at the age of 19 you cannot always call up all your skills and have to cross valleys on the way up. Even Sinner is not protected from this tennis law – the Sextner is currently feeling this firsthand. Everything is not so easy anymore, the pressure is noticeable. Sinner had botched the dress rehearsal for the French Open, and at the Grand Slam he also showed some nerves in the first round, but ultimately lived up to his role as a favorite. After a real show of strength and around 3:35 hours of playing time, Sinner was able to beat 30-year-old Pierre-Hugues Herbert (ATP 85) 6: 1, 4: 6, 6: 7, 7: 5 in the first round of the French Open and 6: 4 prevail.

One after the other: Jannik Sinner, who appeared on the Suzanne Lenglen court at exactly 11 a.m. on Monday, did not resemble Jannik Sinner, who lost out to French Arthur Rinderknech (ATP 125) about a week ago in Lyon. As if changed, the youngster acted with the right mix of risk and control right from the start. The forehand ran, the backhand anyway – and the serve gave the South Tyrolean many free points. In short: Sinner played – in contrast to his counterpart, who tried by variations to break Sinner’s rhythm – perfect tennis. The result was a crystal clear first set, which Sinner won 6: 1 after just 24 minutes.

Herbert increases

His coach Riccardo Piatti in the stands also knew that Sinner could not keep up this incredible level (8 winners and only one unforced mistake) for three sets. And in fact Herbert put the youngster under pressure at the beginning of the second round with powerful returns – and broke him when the score was 1: 1 to zero. Sinner responded with the re-break as soon as possible, but the experienced Herbert didn’t let it bother him and took the world number 19. a few moments later the serve again. The break was synonymous with the set equalization of the doubles specialist, because while Sinner now spread significantly more, Herbert acted with greater self-confidence – 6: 4.

The experienced Pierre-Hugues Herbert finally had to admit defeat. © APA / afp / MARTIN BUREAU

The few but noisy spectators in the stands also saw this picture in the third sentence: An almost unstoppable Herbert put Sinner under tremendous pressure when he served, which caused the Sextner to brood. A lot of mistakes and a more passive game resulted from it. To make matters worse, Sinner also called the physiotherapist to take his body temperature. However, he gave the all-clear, the 19-year-old continued playing – and fell behind with almost no hope of 5-2. When the set seemed to be over, Sinner got everything out of his bag of tricks, made two breaks and took the lead 6: 5. Nevertheless, he lost the passage in the tiebreaker. Herbert decided this – also thanks to the active help of the visibly unhappy South Tyrolean – 7: 4 for himself.

Sinner strikes back

In the fourth set, both served more or less confidently for a long time without having to fend off a breakball. Until the 8th game. Herbert and Sinner had a varied and exciting exchange of blows, the Frenchman led 40: 0, but missed all 3 break chances. The 30-year-old then left 2 more breakballs unused and Sinner was able to equalize to 4: 4. With a score of 4: 5 and his own serve, Sinner finally fought off a match point and equalized again.

Inspired by the fended off match ball, Sinner showed his strongest tennis in this phase of the game and worked out two break chances in the 10th game – and took advantage of the first. With the first break in this set, the youngster from Pusteria took a 6: 5 lead. He also managed his own serve confidently and converted the first set ball to 2: 2.

The game could hardly be more exciting. The momentum at the beginning of the fifth set was on the side of the 19-year-old, who now lived up to his role as a favorite. In the first game of the set, he took the serve from the French. Then both brought through their serves. With a score of 5: 4 for Sinner, the young Sextner awarded the break and match ball. In the tenth game of the decisive set, the 19-year-old acted routinely and with strong nerves: thanks to flawless tennis, he took a 40-0 lead and used the second of three Mätchballs.

This was the end of a real tennis thriller, which brought the certainty: Jannik Sinner can also deal with difficult situations. For the young man from Sesto, this was the first 5-set win in his career. In the second round, the 19-year-old will now face the Italian Gianluca Mager. This defeated the German Peter Gojowczyk in 4 sets. Sinner and Mager have never competed against each other.

Author: leo / am

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