Jannik Sinner played big in Vienna. © APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH
Jannik Sinner is in an exhilarating form! On Wednesday the young Sesto met the American Reilly Opelka at the start of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna and immediately made short work of it. The dream of the ATP Finals is alive.
October 27, 2021
Author: it
At 1.88 meters, Jannik Sinner is one of the taller professionals on the ATP tour. Compared to US boy Reilly Opelka (ATP 27), even the Sesto appears small: the 24-year-old from Michigan measures 2.11 meters, but he was never able to hold a candle to the young star from Pustertal on Wednesday. Sinner, who has been number 11 in the world since Monday, continued to present himself in outstanding form at his start in Vienna and won 6: 4, 6: 2 after 63 minutes.
Sinner had fond memories of Reilly Opelka even before the match. Not as an opponent, but as a teammate. At the beginning of August, the two won the double tournament in Atlanta (USA) – that was the first and so far only success for Sinner in this discipline. So on Wednesday the two faced each other as opponents. Inspired by the tournament victory in Antwerp, Sinner showed the best tennis again and didn’t give his high-serving friend the slightest chance.
Reilly Opelka had nothing to do with Sinner. © APA / afp / JOE KLAMAR
Remarkable: Opelka put 82 percent of his first serves in the field, in the first set the rate was as high as 92 percent – an outstanding figure, which, however, did not impress the 20-year-old Sinner. He always had a suitable answer ready, returned excellent and also served strongly himself. Thereby he bought the US boy the guts. In the first set, a break in the fifth game was enough to win the set, in the second section Sinner even took the serve twice from his opponent and thus took his tenth win from the last eleven matches.
Now a local hero is waiting
The Sesto continues to make up ground in the race for the ATP finals in Turin. Advantage: Hubert Hurkacz, whom Sinner still has to overtake in the so-called “Race” (annual ranking), surprisingly lost to Andy Murray on Tuesday and thus leaves important points behind. Sinner is currently 75 points missing on the poles. In the second round on Thursday, Sinner will meet the Austrian Dennis Novak, who is currently number 116 in the world. In a possible quarter-final there could be a duel with Casper Ruud (No. 8).
