Jannik Sinner overcomes “little ups and downs” to defeat Matteo Berrettini in the rematch.
The world No. 1 calmly regained control of the Centre Court proceedings just as he appeared to be losing it, defeating the Wimbledon finalist from 2021.
Jannik Sinner, who defeated Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (4), at Wimbledon on Wednesday, remarked, “There were some little ups and downs.” “That’s typical for five sets.”
These statements from the world’s top dog could teach us something. Moments when your guard drops, lulls, mental vacations, and hiccups: Even if you’re playing well, you should expect all of those in a tennis match. Perfection is not something that can be expected.
The most anticipated match of the first two rounds was this second-round match between two Italians, two friends, the current No. 1 and the 2021 Wimbledon finalist. Even if it never really took off, it wasn’t a letdown either. Though Berrettini did make it more of a contest than it seemed he would after 90 minutes, the opening two sets weren’t as close as the tiebreaker scores would suggest.
Sinner seemed like he was about to lose control of the match by the end of the fourth set. Then he collected himself and asserted himself again, just like he had done every day for the past eight months.
The two decisive reasons were Berrettini’s shaky ground strokes when he needed them and Sinner’s excellent return of serve when he needed it.
While Berrettini broke service four times, Sinner only twice, but his comeback was crucial in the opening set tiebreaker. Three times Sinner returned a deep first serve from Berrettini that reached speeds of up to 125 mph, and three times he won the point. He got the set from the final one.
In terms of groundstrokes, Berrettini committed 48 mistakes that evening as opposed to Sinner’s 25. Most importantly, he broke down with both his forehand and backhand late in the fourth set, just when it appeared he was ready to even the match and the crowd was cheering him on.
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Berrettini, up 1-0 in the tiebreaker, lost a lengthy rally after hitting a long backhand. He lost a mini-break at 2-3 after he missed an apparent easy open-court forehand. Sinner hit a hard serve into Berrettini’s backhand at 4-3, drawing a mistake. One minute later, the game was done.
“I got a little lucky in the three tiebreakers, but I’ll take it,” Sinner remarked, clearly not wishing to make light of his older friend’s loss. Another instance demonstrated Sinner’s motivation for winning this bout and his current position atop the sport.
In the fourth set, at 15-15, with the score tied at 5-5, Sinner attempted a forehand, which he usually could have made with ease, but he mishit it. The audience, which was rooting for a fifth set, was behind Berrettini, who was two points from breaking and revved up with the score at 15-30.
Sinner had another forehand from the same area of the court as the one he had missed two points later, at 30-30. He didn’t miss this time. He coolly hoisted it well over the net and steered it into the open court for a safe winner, instead of running and flirting with the sideline.
Sinner did commit one mistake, but not two. He also dropped one set but not three in the second consecutive match.
