The situations that Sinner handled best came in the match’s two tiebreakers. That’s when he showed a top player’s knack for manufacturing points out of nothing, of ad libbing the right shot—one you may not have ever seen from him before—at just the right moment.
In the first-set tiebreaker, Sinner won an early point with a slice forehand that drew an error. He won another by improvising a short-hop backhand, from an awkward position, for a winner. In the second-set tiebreaker, he drew two more errors by driving the ball deep and down the middle on one point, and sprinting hard to retrieve what looked like a winning shot from Jarry.
Nothing risky, nothing highlight-worthy, but those points made the difference. Yes, Sinner has the serve-plus-one and the hammer-like ground strokes, but his game is also flexible enough that he can win the toss-up points, the loose-ball points, the ones where both guys are scrambling and desperate.
“He was playing really, really well,” Sinner said of Jarry after his 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-1 win. “I could have also lost the first couple of sets. You never know. But no, how I handled that situations on the court, especially the tiebreaks…It was OK.”
When it comes to expressions of satisfaction, “It was OK” is about as much as you’re going to get from Sinner. When he was asked how he felt about returning to Rod Laver Arena, he said, “It’s a nice place to play some tennis,” as if he was checking out the court at his vacation rental.
