This Sunday, the Inalpa Arena in Turin will dress up again to receive the decisive duel of the ATP Finals between the premises Jannik Sinner and the American Taylor Fritz. The match will begin at 2:00 p.m. (Argentina time) and can be seen on the screen. ESPN. The European, number 1 in the world and 23 years old, will seek to be a prophet in his land; will try to remove the thorn of the definition lost in the last edition against the Serbian Novak Djokovic and become the first representative of his country to take the title of Master.
The week of June 10, the native of Saint Candide He climbed to the top of the ranking and will end the season in that position. He managed to obtain seven trophies: the Australian Openhe US Openand the Masters 1000 of Cincinnati, Miami y Shanghaiin addition to the ATP of Rotterdam y Halle.
Jannik’s path to reaching the final included winning all three matches of the Grupo Ilie Năstase sin ceder sets: beat the Australian Alex de Minaurthe American rival in the decisive match Fritz and the Russian Daniil Medvedev. In the semis, he did the same with the Norwegian Casper Ruudwinning 6-1 and 6-2 in one hour and 9 minutes of competition. He arrives unbeatable at the last big event on the circuit.
At the end of the last match, the Italian expressed his happiness at reaching the decisive match: “I feel like I was returning well in the first games of each set and then, when I was winning by a break, I tried to be very focused on my service games . I tried to be intense with each shot and I am very happy with my performance and with being in the final again”.
For his part, Fritz, number 5 in the world ranking, finalist this season in the US Open -in which he fell to Sinner- and ATP champion of Delray Beach e Eastbournewill play the defining match of the ATP Finals for the first time in his career. The 27-year-old Californian became the only American to reach the final match of the tournament held in Italy since 2006, when James Blake lost to the Swiss Roger Federer.
The North American qualified second in the Group Ilie Năstase. In his debut, he defeated Medvedev; then, he lost against Sinner; and closed his participation with a victory against the Australian De Minaur. In the semis, he defeated the German and two-time Masters champion, Alexander Zverevby 6-3, 3-6 and 7-6(3).
After the victory, he highlighted his moment: “I believe in my game and I trust my level. I don’t feel uncomfortable in certain situations because I’ve been experiencing them against top players in big tournaments lately. “I feel quite confident.”
History shows that they faced each other four times, with three wins for Sinner and one for Fritz. The most recent were a few days ago in Turin and in the final of the US Open, with victories for the Italian.
This Sunday, at the ATP Finals, a new champion will debut. Who will be…?