The third was the good one. Beaten in the final in Miami in 2021 and 2023, Jannik Sinner is now, at almost 22 years old, one of the winners of Masters 1000 since this Sunday and this success (6-4, 6-1) in the final in Toronto against Alex De Minaur. The Italian, winner of his 8th title, will be 6th in the world on Monday, the best ranking of his career.
“It means a lot, it’s a very good result that I will share with my relatives and my staff. We do good things, we work very hard and we get results. I played every opponent with the right attitude. I have the pressure, it’s true, but I managed it very well, I was good in the decisive moments ”, reacted Sinner on the court, a few minutes after hugging his Australian coach.
Sinner never succeeded in De Minaur. Four games, four defeats. The fifth confrontation, Sunday in the final in Toronto, did not reverse the trend. The Italian once again walked on the Australian, author of a superb week – victories against Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev – which will allow him to occupy the best ranking of his career: 12th.
De Minaur, only three winning moves
The Italian is both regular and powerful. We can’t really consider the 24-year-old Australian as a powerful player and the final showed it once again: he managed only 3 winning moves. And with 21 unforced errors, he couldn’t have hoped for more than a correction.
Sinner took advantage of a service game completely missed by his opponent to break away. But the Australian, varying, immediately returned. Bis repeated at 3-2: the Italian broke with a splendid forehand lob then was unbroken in stride, failing to overtake De Minaur. He showed signs of nervousness, especially towards his clan and one of his coaches, Darren Cahill. But at 5-4 in his favor, he was inspired – a first amortization in the match – and took advantage of two faults from the Australian, including a last backhand, to win the first set.
Jannik Sinner, dimanche. (JE Sokolowski/Usa today sports / Reuters)
Sinner-Djokovic in the quarters in Cincinnati?
What happened next turned out to be much simpler. Overwhelmed by the power and the volume put in his strikes by Sinner, De Minaur let go, a first time from a backhand fault, the second time from a forehand error. A few minutes later, the native of San Candido took advantage of a final forehand foul by his opponent to put an end to an unbalanced final – De Minaur won only 46% of points behind his first and 40% behind his second.
The two players, who played the doubles together in Canada, will join Cincinnati on Monday. Sinner has a date with Francisco Cerundolo or Dusan Lajovic in the second round and could face Novak Djokovic in the quarters. De Minaur starts his tournament in the first round against JJ Wolf.
