The former Italian player: “Jannik, as the champion he has become, has learned to win even when he’s not at his best. But in these quarter-final tournaments he comes to us with a pipe in his mouth, this time he struggled more than usual. And his opponent, 19 years old, showed that he is on the right path”
Jannik Sinner is in the semi-finals in Madrid, thus completing the collection of semi-finals in every “1000” tournament. Yet yesterday’s version for long stretches was not the best version of the world number 1. A few too many wrong answers, many forehands that are not always very clean and a service that is sometimes unstable, far from the standards to which we are accustomed. Maybe it’s because the land of Caja Magica has never been too popular with him. Yet, as always, Jannik Sinner managed to bring the game to his side even against a complicated rival like Rafa Jodar, who he had never faced in the past and who, in fact, he had gone to study in person in recent days. There was so much anticipation for this match that, even though only five years have passed between the two contenders, it had a bit of a generational challenge. A match that at some moments might have seemed open but which as always, when Jannik is involved, was decided by the strongest, the most experienced.