Jannik Sinner says being a child with not much strength has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The world No.6 is regarded as one of the hardest ball strikers on the tour by some of his peers. Sinner’s power was on full display during the Canadian Open final where he defeated Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-1, to claim his first Masters 1000 title. Firing a total of five aces and hitting 14 winners during the encounter.
“Jannik is a hell of a player. He’s got some of the hardest ground strokes I’ve probably ever dealt with,” de Minaur said afterward.
So far in his career, Sinner has won eight titles on the Tour and has reached at least the quarter-final stage of every Grand Slam tournament. He has already recorded 41 Tour victories this season which makes it the third year in a row that the Italian has achieved 40-plus wins.
A key to his success has been his powerful ground strokes. Speaking to reporters in Montreal, the 21-year-old said as a child he had to work on the technical side of his game to compensate for a lack of strength in his shots. Then as he got older and stronger, the power started to develop.
“I think I always had a quite fluid ground stroke,” Sinner said. “I was fortunate when I was young that I was not strong physically, so somehow I had to find a way to have a good ground stroke speed. So that’s why I worked a lot technically.
“Now I’m getting also stronger physically. You know, I’m growing. And I guess the combination of being fluid and flexible but also getting stronger makes you hit the ball a little bit harder, no?”
According to Infosys ATP stats, Sinner’s win-loss record over the past 52 weeks is 41-11 which works out as a 0.788 winning rate. The only players to have achieved a higher winning rate than him during this period are Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
After his masters breakthrough, Sinner’s next target will be the US Open where he will be seeking to reach his first major final. He reached the quarter-finals in New York 12 months ago before losing in a five-set thriller to Alcaraz.
“Let’s see what positive things this week can give me,” he said of his Toronto triumph.
“I feel like for sure my confidence is going to be a little bit higher, but also my expectations are going to be higher.’
“I knew that I can play very, very good. This is a great result and we’ll see how it goes in the future.”
Sinner now travels to Cincinnati where he will be playing at the Western and Southern Open. Granted a bye in the first round, his opening match will be against either Dusan Lajovic or Francisco Cerundolo.
