After the three consecutive slams won on the concrete, Jannik chases confirmation in New York: the last to succeed was Federer in 2008. The last training with Safiullin
The wait is about to end. Today around 19.30 Italian Jannik Sinner will begin the defense of the title at the US Open by facing the Czech Vit Kopriva in the debut match, n.87 ATP, never faced previously. The number one in the world will debut in the 2025 edition of the latest SLAM Season not only as a reigning champion, but as a winner of the last three Slam on cement (Australian Open 2024 and 2025, US Open 2024), an open series of 21 games without defeats in the Major sul Fast. Getting confirmed in New York, however, is not a simple enterprise: the last to succeed was Roger Federer in 2008, the last of his five triumphs in a row.
rivalry
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Finally it will be the field, whose truths are incontrovertible, to reveal the jannik’s form of form. His last competitive image, in fact, dates back to him almost in tears in the chair of the field gearbox in Cincinnati just after retiring from the final against Alcaraz on 0-5, delooked by an intestinal virus contracted a few days before. The moment in which eight days from those painful moments will have passed on Arthur, but if we rely on his words, the shadows of the physical condition are behind them: “I’m fine and I can’t wait to play”. After two days of rest on arrival in New York, Sinner resumed training with the usual, fierce determination and clear ideas: a mix of sparring to test all possible game situations. And so, after Michelsen and Khachanov, two great beats who urged the reactivity in response yesterday, on the last day of intense training in the wait for the debut, exchanged with the Russian Safiullin, which has characteristics similar to those of Kopriva. Twice, in this week, Jannik crossed his steps with those of Alcaraz: last Thursday he entered the field and the Spaniard had just finished, and they were hugs and pats on his shoulders; On Sunday they left the locker room together and before their roads divided themselves they exchanged smiles and some phrase that amused both. Their rivalry, as of course, is the hype of these US Open: none, if not some hopeful American who dreams of a home victory 22 years later Roddick, manages to imagine a final different from Sincaraz: it would be the third time in the season, an event that has happened only in 1964 between Emerson and Stolle.
Relax
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If they still found themselves in front of each other in the game for the title, there would also be the number one in the world at stake, which the Red Fox has been holding for 64 consecutive weeks. But if Carlitos on the eve of his debut has revealed that he did not see time facing him again, Jannik is more cautious: and by character and for the need to understand, finally in a match, if the recovery from the trouble of Cincy has been completed. Also because the scoreboard, which if respecting the ranking would offer him in series from the second round forward and up to the semifinal Popyrin, Shapovalov, Paul, Draper and Zverev, can hide pitfalls from a player who was not at the top. Around the strongest player in the world, in any case, you breathe confidence: to training, Sinner alternated appointments with the sponsors, also playing ping pong against Osaka, on quiet evenings in the hotel with the team, even if the burraco games have been reduced due to the new hobby of the number one in the world, the buildings with the Lego. Moreover, somehow we had to pass the time and detach the mind. But now, finally, the king can return to doing what he succeeds best. WIN.
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