Australian Open, the path of the Italians: Sinner with Tsitsipas”>Jannik Sinner had to throw everything into the balance. © APA / afp / MARTIN KEEP
What a fight, what a drama: Jannik Sinner had to dig deep into his bag of tricks in the third round of the Australian Open on Saturday to defeat an unleashed qualifier.
January 22, 2022
From: leo
After the first two matches, Sinner faced the first real endurance test on Saturday evening in Melbourne (local time). Although Taro Daniel is only number 120 in the world rankings, the Japanese is in impressive form, as five wins in a row without dropping a set (he had to fail the qualification) reveal. The 28-year-old also showed all his qualities against Sinner, but in the end there was nothing to gain. The sextner should be considered, who made the round of 16 clear with 6: 4, 1: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 1. In this he meets the Australian Alex De Minaur (ATP 42), who gave Pablo Andujar (ATP 83) no chance in three sets.
First of all: The numerous fans who came to the KIA Stadium did not experience an ordinary tennis match. The two opponents almost never met at eye level at the same time. The pendulum swung in the direction of either a player or the other professional. This resulted in constant ups and downs, a roller coaster ride of emotions.
Sinner gets off to a strong start
It seemed to be clear at the beginning: Daniel played passively, Sinner aggressively. The result was many wins from the world number 10. and a quick 3-0 lead. After the initial nervousness, however, the Japanese stepped up a gear and both sinner breaks were gone again in no time. Sinner reacted vehemently and after another loss of serve Daniels closed the first set 6: 4, but had to fight hard for it.
Taro Daniel put in a strong performance. © APA / afp / MARTIN KEEP
Right at the beginning of the second set, the youngster had numerous chances that he didn’t use. Neither a break chance when the score is 0:0, nor a 40:0 lead with your own serve. And so, before you knew it, it was suddenly 3-0 for the Japanese. Even more: Sinner began to despair, gesticulate and complained to his box. As a result, he completely lost focus – and finally the set with a clear 1: 6.
sensibly reacts
Served, he left the place to collect himself again. And he succeeded perfectly. Sinner came back as if the second set had never happened. The sextner served incredibly well, so he didn’t miss a beat when he served himself, made almost no mistakes from the baseline and, above all, hit winners en masse. Daniel played beyond his chances, fought bravely up to 3:4, but then Sinner pulled away decisively – 6:3. A look at the statistics is enough to illustrate how well the 20-year-old played: he stringed together 14 winning strokes and produced only six unforced errors.
Jannik Sinner is in the round of 16. © APA / afp / MARTIN KEEP
Daniel not only lost his strength, but also his hopes of winning the game. Sinner, on the other hand, looked fresh, chased Daniel across the pitch and spoiled the spectators with some incredible magic strokes. The decision was made at the latest when he took the serve from the Japanese for the second time to make it 4:1. After 2.43 hours he converted his third match point.
