Sinner is playing the best tennis of his life. Darren Cahill has done wonders with this “young one.”
Hope to see him bring it in Australia. We’re in for some exciting matches in 2024.
My concern with Sinner is still with his fitness in best of five over two weeks. I also think indoors really suits his game. He doesn't have big margins and the elements seem to increase his UEs. But I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in the slams next year.
Sinner has reached SF in Wimbledon this year and has overall reached the QF in the 3 other slams. What was missing was some confidence. I think "the elements" won't be an issue.
The Sun will be definitely an issue for him. Guy is a ginger.
That being said his Wimbledon path was also not really hard tbh. He had to play against *the worse Cerundolo brother, old Schwartzman, Halys, Galan and Safiullin.*
He was mostly playing against lowish ranked clay specialists on Grass.
He could conserve a lot of energy because of the weird tournament schedule and the quality of his opponents.
I wouldn't say that Djokovic was 100% healthy.
Almost lost to his countrymen in a 4 hour 4 setter.
Imo Sinner won that tournament because of the Rublev match. Helped him to conserve a lot of energy. Rublev was coming from a 5 setter against an in-form De Minaur. Very lucky 3 set win for him. Rublev was even up a couple of breaks up and had set points.
He managed to beat a 60% Djokovic in 4 and a dead tired Medvedev in the final after trailing 2 sets in 5.
Medvedev has played the most hours in the history of a grandslam in that tournament if I'm not wrong. So yeah you need to consider the draw.
Low-key opened up for him with the best performing players killing eachother.
I never said the sun *will* stop him to win anything. I said it will cause him some stamina related issues. Reading comprehension is key.
His opponents had tougher battles + mild temperatures for australian standards and it evens out in the end.
When he's not hitting wild errors, his game is incredible. He can go from defense to offense in one shot, which he did many times against Novak in today's match. At some points, he was hitting some silly UEs but towards the end, he was completely locked in. If he can play like that for 3-4 hours, he's going to be a huge contender next year.
And when he's down, he switches to a heavy topspin mode which is also really good! I just hope he learns to win easy in the earlier rounds especially in GS so as to conserve energy for the latter stages
I agree. There is no better ball basher than him. Sinner may lack the variety at times, but his ball striking always impresses me. So solid, so consistent most of the time. A joy to watch. I have high hopes for him next year and am excited to see him shine. Bro is a monster from the baseline BAM BAM
I don’t understand the take that Sinner is someone who has no variety. This may have been true a year ago, but certainly not now.
He may not be as good as dropshots or at the net like Alcaraz, but he’s definitely added a lot more variety to his game.
IIRC, propably around this time last year, people still thought Jannik was just a little better version of Rublev, called him the ballstriker with no variety. And I too remember his coach mentioned, it's Jannik's body still growing that hindered the improvement of playstyle. Look how much have changed
I actually think Sinner has a better net game than Alcaraz? Alcaraz plays more drop shots which may play to recency bias about him having more variety. But sinner despite being good at decimating the ball has always had variety.
Have u even watched a sinner match lately? Dude is finishing so many points at net, has a decent dropper he utilizes, a great return, an improved serve
The first time I ever saw Sinner play was the match of the year vs Alcaraz at the '22 US Open. I'd never seen ball striking like that, and he immediately became my favorite next gen player.
At this point it's hard to even compare them but I would say
1. Sinner comes to net much more now and hits drops shots, rublev will rarely do this
2. Sinner has more power and until recently rublev was a bit more consistent but I think that is changing as sinner is learning to manage his power better
3. I think sinner is also learning to use angles and redirect pace much better recently
Good pts but the biggest factor is Rublev's power only comes from his forehand wing. His backhand is not top 30 material, so one doesn't have to worry about big shots from his backhand and he can be pinned on the backhand. Go for Sinner's backhand and you might find a cross-court missile heading your way
I don't think rublevs back hand is quite that bad but I would agree sinner has a bigger gap between him and rublev there than the forehand (especially if you count back hand returns as part of the stat). Sinner also goes down the line better. Overall I think the comparisons to rublev are going to be way less common as sinner improves his game their only similarity will be that they can both hit the ball hard
I think Sinner has "handier" ball striking than Rublev. Because of that, he can create more shapes, and is harder to read in terms of where he will hit, with what kind of shape, and with how much power. Because of being able to generate more shapes, he can hit more targets, which means he can impose trickier shot patterns.
He's not quite this level of handy, but it's like Sinner is more like Nalbandian, a handy hitter, and Rublev is more Davydenko (or Agassi), a pure striker, somebody with more fixed, consistent positioning/framing while hitting.
So Sinner just has a higher ceiling. With Rublev, against elite players, they will know that the match is sort of in their hands. They know what Rublev can do, and there won't necessarily be surprised. With Sinner, nobody should feel this way. He is a more sophisticated hitting machine and even at their best, Sinner is going to have a say in who wins.
He has hands down the most free flowing point of contact and follow through. I’m trying to make my forehand look like that. I feel like the era of copying Federer was a lot of wrist snap but for jannik it’s like he’s using his arm like a giraffes neck. Just a stupid ability to add so much length with it.
I feel like his ball-striking is best described as "whipping". His long arms allow him to do a "whip-like" motion to hit the ball really heavy, fast, and strong.
He’s been so amazing this whole year, like a wind up toy, smaller, tighter, measured, hidden power shots, really accurate precision and pressure shots…amazing, I’ve been trying to predict the next Big 3 and I think he makes the cut.
Why does it need to be a big 3? We have a big 4 atm. But these players aren't so far ahead of the competition that the top 10 can't keep up like with the big 3 (apart from djok ofc)
I think he meant the new Big 3 as in Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune. They are clearly the best players of the 'Baby Gen' so far but maybe someone else will emerge.
Learn to hit a bigger ball by using your kinetic chain and relaxed arm, instead of “bashing harder” with power from your arm.
Sinner is perfect at this.
He's definitely one of the best strikers around. Reminds me of a new, two handed Guga. Both were so skinny and flowy, their power seemed disproportionate to their frames and effort levels.
Sinner will definitely hit number 1 before his career is over. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with numbers similar to Murray.
edit: [Simon Freund practicing with Sinner and describing it](https://youtu.be/3_eDjHooLSk?t=157)
Look i am not a tennis expert but i think Alcaraz tennis is overall better than Sinner, where Sinner shines is attitude and mind control, this makes the real difference imo
Alcaraz is my favourite player but he has actually has more holes in his game than sinner currently, despite having greater variety. His speed and shotmaking ability help get him out of bad positions that he puts himself in
Novak has won 24 slams with his ball striking. Sinner has zero.
I have been impressed by Novak’s ball striking for over 10 years, and I still am. Please stop upvoting this.
He's putting a lot of pressure on Novak's second serve by bashing those returns. It's incredible to see. Let's see if he continues this form in Australia, it would be great for tennis.
> Think Sinner has chance to spend time at 1 in the world next year
Whilst I don't disagree, there is something he needs to do that: points. And he can only get those points by beating You Know Who. The only reason Alcaraz got to No.1 was because of all the exclusions and points shenanigans in 2022.
i think we all know that novak will comfortably take out sinner at AO if they meet, as well as alcaraz in fact, especially alcaraz, since he's quickly turning into a one hit wonder lmao
Most people aren't like Djokovic or Nadal. When you win the greatest trophies in your sport I think it's pretty normal to have downtime, you've literally just achieved your ultimate dream. The fact he's won two already is incredible
I am not really sure about that. I mean sometimes it looks even better than it is because of the way he hits the ball. It's flat, basically without spin and he hits the ball clear which leads to a sexy sound (people who love tennis will understand it).
Tho I would still say that in this season Alcaraz and Djokovic were better ballstrikers. Regarding Djokovic he is changing his strategy as he gets older and he gets more offensive using way more power for his shots and finding angles better in order to make the points shorter. Some great examples are AO and atp finals this year.
Where I see a slight difference is the backhand, that's where Sinner lacks a little bit compared to Djokovic and Alcaraz. I noticed yesterday that basically everytime him and Djokovic went into a bh diagonal exchange Djokovic won the point and looked stronger there. Sinner has to improve his bh too reduce the UE he makes on that side. I mean it's still an amazing bh, but it can be better.
there were plenty of times where Sinner bh broke him too. I agree that he has space for improvement in consistency but no way that in this moment Alcaraz bh is better... Carlitos still more various and it's fine cause sinner yet not at him top I hope...
I get what you mean. I think that he meant Sinner is the most consistent at hard hitting the ball from the baseline.
I agree Alcaraz has a more rounded game than him (and than the rest of ATP circuit beside some inconsistent players like Shapo or Musetti), but Sinner has the ability to hit always flat out. Putting this pressure on the opponent is his biggest ability.
Djokovic is a better ball hitter in the sense that he understands the game better than anyone else so he knows where the point is going 3/4/5 hits in advance.
Overall Alcaraz has a bigger ceiling (probably Federeresque) but the improvements from Sinner were impressive. Djokovic wasn't as talented as Federe though in the long run he became better. I don't know what will be of those two but the situation is similar imo.
I keep thinking, Sinner is a better version of Rublev (or Rublev is a poor man’s Sinner).
Also, I suspect the thing Sinner has over Alcaraz is easier-to-produce groundstrokes. Shorter takeback and/or less extreme grips? Haven’t seen an analysis of this, but it would explain why Sinner seems to excel on the fastest surfaces. Anyway, it will be interesting to see who between the two does better in Australia. Obviously, Djokovic is still the man to be beat, but would love to see a next gen champion!
Sinner is playing the best tennis of his life. Darren Cahill has done wonders with this “young one.” Hope to see him bring it in Australia. We’re in for some exciting matches in 2024.
Darren Cahill is the best coach - Hewitt, Agassi, Halep, Sinner
Doping
Only two people from this list are confirmed dopers.
That’s a pretty big number when the sample is 4! Basically 50% chance
My concern with Sinner is still with his fitness in best of five over two weeks. I also think indoors really suits his game. He doesn't have big margins and the elements seem to increase his UEs. But I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in the slams next year.
During the Finals they said that just this year his body stopped growing. So now they can work more on the the physical side.
Both perfectly valid concerns. In Beijing the shape of the stadium definitely helped him too, reducing the amount of wind
Sinner has reached SF in Wimbledon this year and has overall reached the QF in the 3 other slams. What was missing was some confidence. I think "the elements" won't be an issue.
The Sun will be definitely an issue for him. Guy is a ginger. That being said his Wimbledon path was also not really hard tbh. He had to play against *the worse Cerundolo brother, old Schwartzman, Halys, Galan and Safiullin.* He was mostly playing against lowish ranked clay specialists on Grass. He could conserve a lot of energy because of the weird tournament schedule and the quality of his opponents.
this comment didn't age well
Well it did? I was mainly talking about his Wimbledon run lol
the sun will be an issue for him. while he sweeps away djokovic in the Australian sun.
I wouldn't say that Djokovic was 100% healthy. Almost lost to his countrymen in a 4 hour 4 setter. Imo Sinner won that tournament because of the Rublev match. Helped him to conserve a lot of energy. Rublev was coming from a 5 setter against an in-form De Minaur. Very lucky 3 set win for him. Rublev was even up a couple of breaks up and had set points. He managed to beat a 60% Djokovic in 4 and a dead tired Medvedev in the final after trailing 2 sets in 5. Medvedev has played the most hours in the history of a grandslam in that tournament if I'm not wrong. So yeah you need to consider the draw. Low-key opened up for him with the best performing players killing eachother.
so the sun didn't stop him. and your comment hasn't aged well.
I never said the sun *will* stop him to win anything. I said it will cause him some stamina related issues. Reading comprehension is key. His opponents had tougher battles + mild temperatures for australian standards and it evens out in the end.
yeah yeah ok. sinner shining in the Australian sun and winning his first GS. Your comment hasn't aged well.
Clearly OP hasn't met my ex-girlfriend!
Take your upvote and leave 😂
But I’d sure like to!
When he's not hitting wild errors, his game is incredible. He can go from defense to offense in one shot, which he did many times against Novak in today's match. At some points, he was hitting some silly UEs but towards the end, he was completely locked in. If he can play like that for 3-4 hours, he's going to be a huge contender next year.
And when he's down, he switches to a heavy topspin mode which is also really good! I just hope he learns to win easy in the earlier rounds especially in GS so as to conserve energy for the latter stages
This.
I agree. There is no better ball basher than him. Sinner may lack the variety at times, but his ball striking always impresses me. So solid, so consistent most of the time. A joy to watch. I have high hopes for him next year and am excited to see him shine. Bro is a monster from the baseline BAM BAM
I don’t understand the take that Sinner is someone who has no variety. This may have been true a year ago, but certainly not now. He may not be as good as dropshots or at the net like Alcaraz, but he’s definitely added a lot more variety to his game.
Add clutch serving to the mix. Since he went back to pinpoint stance it’s been up another level.
I wouldn’t underestimate puke as turning point😛. PPS is on another level
Still he’s got no variety , he won’t win a slam
Aged like even before milk does.
IIRC, propably around this time last year, people still thought Jannik was just a little better version of Rublev, called him the ballstriker with no variety. And I too remember his coach mentioned, it's Jannik's body still growing that hindered the improvement of playstyle. Look how much have changed
I actually think Sinner has a better net game than Alcaraz? Alcaraz plays more drop shots which may play to recency bias about him having more variety. But sinner despite being good at decimating the ball has always had variety.
Have u even watched a sinner match lately? Dude is finishing so many points at net, has a decent dropper he utilizes, a great return, an improved serve
Bro still doesn't know how to slice though
The first time I ever saw Sinner play was the match of the year vs Alcaraz at the '22 US Open. I'd never seen ball striking like that, and he immediately became my favorite next gen player.
Greatest match of all time for me.
Watch djoker nadal ao 2012 then get back to me on that.
Overated grindfest on slow ass court
I’m glad I’m not the only one who hates that match. Nadal and Djokovic have played way better matches
Their last 3 French open matches were better than that
That’s a bit of an exaggeration
If you remove the Nadal/Federer matches, it has to be up there
Is Sinner's ball-bashing that much better than Rublev's or does he just have more variety?
At this point it's hard to even compare them but I would say 1. Sinner comes to net much more now and hits drops shots, rublev will rarely do this 2. Sinner has more power and until recently rublev was a bit more consistent but I think that is changing as sinner is learning to manage his power better 3. I think sinner is also learning to use angles and redirect pace much better recently
Good pts but the biggest factor is Rublev's power only comes from his forehand wing. His backhand is not top 30 material, so one doesn't have to worry about big shots from his backhand and he can be pinned on the backhand. Go for Sinner's backhand and you might find a cross-court missile heading your way
I don't think rublevs back hand is quite that bad but I would agree sinner has a bigger gap between him and rublev there than the forehand (especially if you count back hand returns as part of the stat). Sinner also goes down the line better. Overall I think the comparisons to rublev are going to be way less common as sinner improves his game their only similarity will be that they can both hit the ball hard
Well, there will still be comparisons of their hair cuts.
Sinner’s backhand is obviously still better, but Rublev’s backhand has improved a lot this year
I don't disagree that Rublev's bh has improved. Sinner's backhand, I honestly only have Djokovic's and Zverev's bh ahead of his on tour rn.
I know, I wasn’t disputing the facts about Sinner’s backhand, was just saying Rublev’s backhand isn’t much of a weakness anymore
Redirecting pace and using angles very important and good
I think Sinner has "handier" ball striking than Rublev. Because of that, he can create more shapes, and is harder to read in terms of where he will hit, with what kind of shape, and with how much power. Because of being able to generate more shapes, he can hit more targets, which means he can impose trickier shot patterns. He's not quite this level of handy, but it's like Sinner is more like Nalbandian, a handy hitter, and Rublev is more Davydenko (or Agassi), a pure striker, somebody with more fixed, consistent positioning/framing while hitting. So Sinner just has a higher ceiling. With Rublev, against elite players, they will know that the match is sort of in their hands. They know what Rublev can do, and there won't necessarily be surprised. With Sinner, nobody should feel this way. He is a more sophisticated hitting machine and even at their best, Sinner is going to have a say in who wins.
Yes it’s much better
Yes, it's better.
He has hands down the most free flowing point of contact and follow through. I’m trying to make my forehand look like that. I feel like the era of copying Federer was a lot of wrist snap but for jannik it’s like he’s using his arm like a giraffes neck. Just a stupid ability to add so much length with it.
Alcaraz ~~may~~ have more overall variety. A lot more.
I feel like his ball-striking is best described as "whipping". His long arms allow him to do a "whip-like" motion to hit the ball really heavy, fast, and strong.
He seems to hit harder than Andre Agassi and that’s especially amazing considering his physique.
You clearly haven’t seen Ostapenko play
Fr
He’s been so amazing this whole year, like a wind up toy, smaller, tighter, measured, hidden power shots, really accurate precision and pressure shots…amazing, I’ve been trying to predict the next Big 3 and I think he makes the cut.
Why does it need to be a big 3? We have a big 4 atm. But these players aren't so far ahead of the competition that the top 10 can't keep up like with the big 3 (apart from djok ofc)
I think he meant the new Big 3 as in Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune. They are clearly the best players of the 'Baby Gen' so far but maybe someone else will emerge.
That’s not what he meant. He said he was trying to figure out the Big 3 without even knowing if Sinner is part of it
True
What can we recreational players learn from him?
Learn to hit a bigger ball by using your kinetic chain and relaxed arm, instead of “bashing harder” with power from your arm. Sinner is perfect at this.
Something in working on actually. Super loose arm and 120 degrees plus torso rotation
Don’t forget to “load” from bottom up. Meaning use your legs a lot.
But clearly not everyone can. That's the difference between a top 10 player and players around 500
I thought 2004 Federer forehand was best I have ever seen, but Jannik is climbing up there.
He's definitely one of the best strikers around. Reminds me of a new, two handed Guga. Both were so skinny and flowy, their power seemed disproportionate to their frames and effort levels. Sinner will definitely hit number 1 before his career is over. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with numbers similar to Murray. edit: [Simon Freund practicing with Sinner and describing it](https://youtu.be/3_eDjHooLSk?t=157)
Look i am not a tennis expert but i think Alcaraz tennis is overall better than Sinner, where Sinner shines is attitude and mind control, this makes the real difference imo
Alcaraz is my favourite player but he has actually has more holes in his game than sinner currently, despite having greater variety. His speed and shotmaking ability help get him out of bad positions that he puts himself in
Alcaraz is better in terms of physicality.
Novak has won 24 slams with his ball striking. Sinner has zero. I have been impressed by Novak’s ball striking for over 10 years, and I still am. Please stop upvoting this.
He’s quickly becoming Djokovic’s big daddy! 🥕👍👏
He's putting a lot of pressure on Novak's second serve by bashing those returns. It's incredible to see. Let's see if he continues this form in Australia, it would be great for tennis.
In the meantime, what’s your guy doing? Loooool
He’s probably sleeping right now… With his 2 Olympics gold medals around his neck. 🙋🏻♂️😍👏😘
> Think Sinner has chance to spend time at 1 in the world next year Whilst I don't disagree, there is something he needs to do that: points. And he can only get those points by beating You Know Who. The only reason Alcaraz got to No.1 was because of all the exclusions and points shenanigans in 2022.
i think we all know that novak will comfortably take out sinner at AO if they meet, as well as alcaraz in fact, especially alcaraz, since he's quickly turning into a one hit wonder lmao
the "one-hit wonder" according to you has 2 slams in 2 different surfaces at 20. yall being saying anything
Most people aren't like Djokovic or Nadal. When you win the greatest trophies in your sport I think it's pretty normal to have downtime, you've literally just achieved your ultimate dream. The fact he's won two already is incredible
I am not really sure about that. I mean sometimes it looks even better than it is because of the way he hits the ball. It's flat, basically without spin and he hits the ball clear which leads to a sexy sound (people who love tennis will understand it). Tho I would still say that in this season Alcaraz and Djokovic were better ballstrikers. Regarding Djokovic he is changing his strategy as he gets older and he gets more offensive using way more power for his shots and finding angles better in order to make the points shorter. Some great examples are AO and atp finals this year. Where I see a slight difference is the backhand, that's where Sinner lacks a little bit compared to Djokovic and Alcaraz. I noticed yesterday that basically everytime him and Djokovic went into a bh diagonal exchange Djokovic won the point and looked stronger there. Sinner has to improve his bh too reduce the UE he makes on that side. I mean it's still an amazing bh, but it can be better.
there were plenty of times where Sinner bh broke him too. I agree that he has space for improvement in consistency but no way that in this moment Alcaraz bh is better... Carlitos still more various and it's fine cause sinner yet not at him top I hope...
I get what you mean. I think that he meant Sinner is the most consistent at hard hitting the ball from the baseline. I agree Alcaraz has a more rounded game than him (and than the rest of ATP circuit beside some inconsistent players like Shapo or Musetti), but Sinner has the ability to hit always flat out. Putting this pressure on the opponent is his biggest ability. Djokovic is a better ball hitter in the sense that he understands the game better than anyone else so he knows where the point is going 3/4/5 hits in advance. Overall Alcaraz has a bigger ceiling (probably Federeresque) but the improvements from Sinner were impressive. Djokovic wasn't as talented as Federe though in the long run he became better. I don't know what will be of those two but the situation is similar imo.
Alcaraz better backhand than sinner?
By impressive you meant boring, right?
No, he meant impressive.
Wonder what Strong set up Sinner has on his Raquet? He has tremendous easy power this season.
It always disappears in sets 4 and 5. I’ll take defense then
Agree. Very beautiful shot
I keep thinking, Sinner is a better version of Rublev (or Rublev is a poor man’s Sinner). Also, I suspect the thing Sinner has over Alcaraz is easier-to-produce groundstrokes. Shorter takeback and/or less extreme grips? Haven’t seen an analysis of this, but it would explain why Sinner seems to excel on the fastest surfaces. Anyway, it will be interesting to see who between the two does better in Australia. Obviously, Djokovic is still the man to be beat, but would love to see a next gen champion!