After almost half a century, Italy scores a sharp Slam: exactly 48 years after Adriano Panatta, Jannik Sinner, beating Danil Medvedev in an epic comeback, wins one of the four main tennis tournaments.

The match

Favored after an almost clear run in the tournament, which culminated with the great victory in the semi-final over Novak Djokovic, the South Tyrolean was surprised by a lightning start from the Russian. Medvedev, mindful of the last defeats against the blue, changes his game: used to hitting the advertising boards, the Russian plays a very aggressive game, with his feet firmly on the baseline even in response. Sinner, surprised, seems to have lost his magic touch, and suddenly finds himself down 6-3, 5-1. First signs of recovery at the end of the second set, which the blue still lost 6-3.

And from the third another game begins. Sinner grows, on serve and with groundstrokes, Medvedev is no longer able to keep up that frenetic pace and is forced to move back his range of action and row. He also does it well, but Sinner becomes implacable: more precise in his dribbling, dominant on serve, he takes control of the rallies even in return and places the decisive break in the tenth game in both the third and fourth sets.

The inertia of the match has changed, and in the decisive partial we only expect the knockout blow from Sinner, who places the decisive break in the sixth game and after 3 hours and 46 minutes of play with a winning forehand down the line he closes the match, yes he drops to the ground, embraces Medvedev, climbs onto the balustrade and embraces his staff in a beautiful embrace: 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

The words of the champion

«A special victory, an incredible tournament, two fantastic weeks», were the first words of the Italian, who was moved by wishing «all the children to live this dream and to have the freedom that my parents gave me».

His first thanks are to Vagnozzi and Cahill, the two coaches who accompanied him on this splendid journey: «We try to improve day after day, trying to become stronger and stronger. I'm really happy to have you with me to encourage me and understand me because sometimes it's not easy, but that's how I am."

Italy at his feet

Thus, thanks to Jannik, a population of football fans rediscover themselves as passionate about tennis on a cold Sunday at the end of January. The entire political world, from Meloni to Schlein via Renzi, celebrates him. And on Thursday 1 February Sinner, together with the team that won the Davis Cup (by the way, another triumph that had been missing since 1976 like the Slam), will be received at the Quirinale by Sergio Mattarella.

The leaders of Italian sport, Abodi, Malagò and Binaghi, and his rivals congratulated him. «Champion inside and out», writes his friend Matteo Berrettini, but Medvedev, Djokovic, Nadal and Alcaraz also celebrate the South Tyrolean's feat.

The records

Third Italian to win a Slam (after Pietrangeli in 1959 and 1960 and Panatta in 1976), first to do so on hard courts (all the other successes had come on clay). Youngest Italian to win a Slam.

With 11 ATP titles, at just 22 years old he is already the most successful Italian tennis player in history. His fourth position in the ATP ranking (with the triumph in Melbourne he brought all his rivals closer but did not surpass anyone) is the best ever achieved by an Italian, tied with Adriano Panatta. He will get over it soon.

Only he and Nadal have won the Australian Open in the Open era by overcoming two sets from a deficit in the final, Rafa also overcame the unfortunate Medvedev.

He is the only tennis player in the world not to have conceded even a break point to Djokovic in a 3 out of 5 match. The only tennis player in the world to win a semi-final at the Australian Open with Djokovic: the Serbian had reached it ten times, and as many times had won the tournament. Furthermore, Djoker had not lost in Melbourne for 2,195 days, since January 22, 2018 when, returning from an elbow injury that had impaired him for the entire 2017, he lost to the Korean Chung.

Another significant fact, only 6 times before him had someone won a Slam final by overcoming a two set deficit.

Path

At twenty years old, Sinner is already an established top ten player, but he lacks something to compete with the big names and win the big tournaments, the ones where, to be clear, you have to beat the best in the world. At the 2022 Australian Open he reached the quarter-finals where he lost badly to the Greek Tsitsipas. Never in a match, he lost in three sets.

It is one of the turning points of his career. Stable among the top ten at twenty years old, something few do. Many would be satisfied, but not him. He wants to compete on equal terms with the best: the historic coach Riccardo Piatti changes and relies on Vagnozzi and Cahill. His baseline pace, with strong and precise shots, is difficult for many to sustain, but when he meets very high level tennis players it proves to be less effective and brings out all his flaws: on serve, at net, in variations.

And that's where he starts: he starts to make his game more varied (he comes to the net more, he improves his backhand and his rebounds), he becomes more aggressive and starts playing with his feet constantly on the baseline, he improves his service and works on his body, which probably also causes him some injuries. 2022 is a year of transition, his riskier tennis leads him to make more mistakes: he reaches three quarters of the Slam but ends it in 15th place in the rankings, so much so that L'Equipe indicates it as the disappointment of the year and many begin to doubt whether it is a phenomenon. Also because Alcaraz, younger than him, competes on an equal footing with the greats, wins his first Slam in the USA and ends the year as number 1 in the world.

2023, the second part in particular, is the turning point year. In Melbourne he loses again to Tsitsipas in the round of 16, he makes the semis and finals in Indian Wells and Miami, injuries slow him down in the clay court season and at Wimbledon he reaches the semi-final, where he is defeated by Djokovic.

He does not participate in the Davis Cup preliminaries: many criticize him but he needs to rest and prepare as best as possible for the season finale, and Italy still passes against manageable opponents.

Then comes the turning point. He returned and won his first Master 1000 in Toronto. Then he won the ATP 500 in Beijing and Vienna, defeating Medvedev twice in the final, who had beaten him in all the previous six. At the Finals he beat the other bête noire, Djokovic, for the first time, who then took revenge in the final but was defeated again in the triumphal Davis Cup for the Azzurri. He closes the year as number 4 in the world and opens 2024 with the triumph at the Australian Open, defeating, once again, his former bête noires.

Some data: with Medvedev he had lost 6 matches in a row, he won the next 4. Against Djokovic until Wimbledon 2023 he had lost 4 out of 4, then he won 3 out of 4. More generally: before 2023 he had a score of 9 wins and 21 losses against the top ten. With yesterday's victory over Medvedev he has won 10 of his last 11 matches against the top 5, his only defeat being the Turin final against Djokovic.

Numbers that give an idea of the turning point that Sinner's career has had since the end of last year: from a great tennis player to a champion capable of entering the world Olympus of this sport. Numbers that are the result of long work on the body, the game and the head. Numbers destined inexorably to improve for what is already in all respects the best Italian tennis player in history.

(Unioneonline/L)

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