Sinner impresses home crowd in straight sets win over Tsitsipas

The Italian hopeful has been drawn in the same group as Novak Djokovic, therefore it is vital to pick up as many points as possible to avoid relying on the need for points against the Serb. On this occasion, Sinner powered through in the afternoon session to sit happily at the top of the Green Group*. 

The first session of tennis was not shy of expectations, particularly for the Italians. Jannik Sinner, who is of North Italian origin, kicked off his ATP Finals campaign with a confident display against Stefanos Tsitsipas. The high-altitude of Turin is suited to Sinner’s hard-hitting style of play, not to mention the crowd who will favour him over all his opponent’s in the competition. It took 85 minutes for Sinner to collect his first points of the tournament, with the Italian looking more and more comfortable on the big stage as the match progressed.

Pre-match advantage?

For two evenly matched players, the head-to-head record between the two is surprisingly in favour of Tsitsipas (5-2). However, this did not daunt the ball-bashing Italian. Sinner approached the early stages of the match with a positive, aggressive style of play that we are often seeing from him. Sinner managed to pick up an early break of serve to lead 3-2 in the first set, to which he never looked back and comfortably saw out the first set.

On the front foot…

Sinner was on the attack for another break of serve. The Greek served first in the second set and was broken by the crowd favourite. After this moment, Sinner was full steam ahead and the Greek was struggling to live with the pace of the Italian’s forehand in particular. World number 4, Sinner, managed to rack up an impressive total of 21 winners throughout the match - while giving away just 5 points in unforced errors. 

Who next for Sinner?

Sinner will do battle with Novak Djokovic and Holger Rune, in an attempt to qualify for the semi-finals. One more win against either of these opponents and a spot in the semi-final should be booked. His other two opponent’s will be battling for their first points in the Sunday evening session. Red Group action will kick off on Monday with Carlos Alcaraz facing Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev playing Daniil Medvedev in the evening session.