World No.1 Jannik Sinner justified his status as favorite for the ATP Masters by outclassing Alex De Minaur during a first day marked Sunday by the defeat and the breakdown of Daniil Medvedev.
In search of the first title of his career in front of his audience, Sinner passed the first obstacle without difficulty.
It only took him two sets 6-3, 6-4 and one hour and 24 minutes of play to beat De Minaur, 8th in the world, who is discovering the tournament bringing together the eight best players of the year.
Sinner, however, had a difficult start to the match. The Italian, who withdrew from the Masters 1000 in Paris due to illness, had not played since his coronation at the Masters 1000 in Shanghai just a month ago.
He lost his serve in the third game. But he immediately restored the situation and won four games in a row to lead 5-2 and no longer be really worried, concluding the match with an ace and a white service game.
“It’s a good start, when you take into account that I hadn’t played for four weeks. I am happy with my level of play, even if there were complicated moments at the start of the match, but I quickly found my bearings”explained the Italian at a press conference.
His next match Tuesday evening against the American Taylor Fritz, 5th in the world and earlier winner of Daniil Medvedev, could be the « finale » of their group. “I will have to play at my best level to beat him, he has improved a lot in recent months, I will have to play even better than this (Sunday) evening”warned Sinner who won seven titles in 2024, including his first two Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open and US Open).
“Angry and frustrated”
On Sunday afternoon to kick off the tournament, Fritz dominated Medvedev 6-4, 6-3.
Russian Daniil Medvedev during his match against American Taylor Fritz at the ATP Masters in Turin on November 10, 2024. / Marco BERTORELLO / AFP
The Russian, 4th in the world and winner of the “masters tournament” in 2020, experienced one of those mental implosions that punctuate his career.
He first smashed his racket after conceding the first set with a series of three double-faults. He then threw the end of his match after losing his serve at 4-2, not without another spectacular outburst of anger.
He received a penalty point for swinging his racket and breaking a microphone capturing ambient sounds courtside. To the great anger of the spectators who began to whistle at him, he then threw his racket in the air between each point of his opponent’s service, even pretending to want to return a service from Fritz by taking his racket by the sieve. .
“I don’t know why I’m doing this, I don’t expect anything from it, I was angry and frustrated, at myself, not at anyone”he explained at a press conference. “I’m going to try to play better, if it doesn’t work, I’ll be happy to be eliminated, if it works, I’ll be happy to still be in the running”asserted Medvedev, mentally and physically tired.