Italy’s Jannik Sinner has become the youngest player in history to win an ATP 500 event after outlasting Mackenzie McDonald in a marathon final at the Citi Open.
The 19-year-old needed almost three hours to see off the world No.107 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. It was a far from easy encounter for Sinner who had a total of 23 break point opportunities in the match but could only convert five of those. In the final set, he had two match points whilst leading 5-3 but was unable to serve the match out before getting broken in the following game. He would eventually prevail four games later on his third match point when McDonald hit a backhand into the net.
“I had a lot of chances,” Sinner said afterwards, “[but] I couldn’t use [them] because, first, he was playing better in the crucial moments. But I tried to work for one more chance and for one more chance.”
Washington is the biggest tournament Sinner has won so far in his career. He has become the youngest player to win an ATP 500 title since the category was created back in 2009 and is the third-youngest player to ever win the Washington crown after Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro. It is the third ATP title of his career and the second this season after the Great Road Open in Melbourne.
“I think there is still much work to do, to be honest. A lot of experience to put in, working hard as we are doing now, and trying to play important matches and important moments of a match,” atptour.com quoted Sinner as saying. “Today I think I had a lot of them. I can learn many things [from] today.”
During his time in Washington, the world No.24 dropped only one set in five matches played. Prior to McDonald, he also scored wins over Emil Ruusuvuori, Sebastian Korda, Steve Johnson and Jenson Brooksby. Korda was the only seeded player he faced in the entire tournament.
Despite achieving a new milestone in his young career, Sinner says he is not going to pay too much attention to it. Instead, he is focusing on improving his game for the future.
“When you see somebody is the youngest or whatever, I don’t put much weight on that. There are a lot of players who have done much, much better than me,” Sinner said. “It’s not about who is the youngest or whatever. I just want to improve, work hard.”
There will be little time to rest for Sinner as he flies to Canada for the National Bank Open. He is the 15th seed in the draw and will begin his campaign against either Taylor Fritz or James Duckworth later this week.
