Sinner, two victories to return number 1. For a week
(Marco Calabresi) Eighth match (all wins) in 10 days and with the prospect of reaching 10 in 12, Jannik Sinner had to save as much energy as possible. In the night of the witchesthe monsters saw Ben Shelton once again, beaten with a double 6-3 in 70 minutes. The embroidery with the backhand volley with which Sinner closes the match is the perfect conclusion of a match conducted from head to tail, which takes Jannik to the semifinals for the first time in the Masters 1000 in Paris, for the 43rd at ATP level (with Fognini and Panatta behind, they stopped at 42), for the ninth in 11 tournaments played in a season which still saw him out of action for three months but who won tomorrow (against Zverev) and on Sunday it can bring him back to world number 1 for a week, awaiting the showdown in Turin with Alcaraz.
There is no playing against Sinner indoors: today’s victory is the 24th in a row indoors, with the number 6 in the world (not the last to arrive, therefore) forced to continually look for solutions without finding any in an attempt to make the game even. Forcing serve (five double faults against none) and looking for winners from all over the court (20 final errors against Sinner’s 10) proved to be dead ends, with the first of the two breaks arriving in the fifth game thanks to an excellent response from Jannik, who then closed the exchange with a smash. Extraordinaryfor the corner drawn, the forehand passer in the next game, which further discouraged Shelton: devastating, mentally, the point that instead closed the first set, with Sinner who was not even a football goalkeeper responding instinctively to a first at 221 hours before passing with a backhand on a power-only attempt by the American, who in any case was already qualified for the Finals like his compatriot Fritz.
And again with the response Sinner took the 3-1 break in the second set, forcing Shelton to widen the size of the forehand too much. Everything seemed to be going downhill, but in the next serve a missed forehand from Sinner gave Shelton the first three break points of the match, with Ben taking advantage of the first by shooting a great passer, and Sinner who nervously approached his corner after the change of ends, asking for more support in a delicate moment of the match. But with a double fault, which cost the break at 3-5, Shelton condemned himself.
«I’m very happy, it was a really difficult match and we already knew it on the eve – the words of Sinner, who today played his 400th match at ATP level -. He serves very well, but I played a solid and aggressive match. Tomorrow there will be a very physical one, but today I’m happy. And I don’t think about the ranking: that is the consequence of how one plays, it goes day by day, with difficult challenges awaiting me. Today was a complicated one, in a long season and where no result should be taken for granted.” True, but now Sinner not making it to the weekend in every tournament he plays has become news.
