“I don’t know that we can over complement this guy on how he played this week” : Andy Roddick praises Jannik Sinner after impressive ATP Finals victory
Jannik Sinner’s breakout year has been one for the history books, as he became one of the best young prospects at the start of the year to the undisputed best in the world by the end. The Italian won eight tournament titles this year, which includes two Grand Slam victories in the Australian and US Open, and three Masters 1000 titles at the Miami Open, Cincinnati Open and the Shanghai Masters.
The world no.1 recently won the ATP Finals, being the first ever Italian to do so, beating world no.4 Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4, while also putting out tough competition like Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud and Alex de Minaur almost effortlessly.
Out of all the praises and acknowledgements the Italian received, former US Open winner Andy Roddick shared some special words for him. The American believes that there is not much Fritz could have done more, as the Italian had the answer to just about all of his moves.
“This looks like the route to victory of, like a 16-and-under statewide tournament if you’re a really good junior. Honestly, like, I’m not sure where you go, what you do, and we haven’t even approached all the pressure set of never having won in Italy, well he didn’t care about that.”
“You’re World No. 1, how are you going to perform every year? Forget about that. There is a virus out of Paris, forget about, the drugs scenario, let’s just forget about that.’ And then, the beatings on the best players in the world for an entire week,” Roddick said on the Tennis Channel.
“There were just no errors” : Andy Roddick on Jannik Sinner’s near perfect ATP Finals performance
Continuing on the Italian’s praise, Roddick talked about how he basically had no weakness throughout the tournament, as he also vastly improved his service. The American implied that the amount of progress he has shown in such short time in applaudable, as a few years back the Italian’s service was a few tiers below his current level.
“I mean, I don’t know that we can over complement this guy on how he played this week. There were just no errors, like he will miss a shot, maybe one or two a set, but it’s the right shot, it’s an aggressive miss and then he is right back to work.”
“With his serve going the way its going down, if you run back what the book was on Sinner three years ago, it was like, ‘Okay well, his serve is good, not great, maybe he is not as strong as he could be, maybe when he gets stronger, he is going to get out of the corners, in big matches, maybe he gets a little bit tight,’ none of those exist anymore. Talk about progress,” the 42-year-old explained.
Jannik Sinner will most definitely never forget about this year, as he ends up as the world no.1 ranking with 11830 points. The gap between him and the others is literally visible, as the world no.2 is Alexander Zverev with 7915 points. This is an absolutely mind-boggling stat as fans have started to believe that not even the Big 3 were as good as the Italian at this age.
Overall, Sinner completes 2024 with 70 out of 76 wins, but he is not done yet, as he is already scheduled to be a part of the Davis Cup representing his country, who are the defending champions. They will be facing Argentina in the quarter-finals on November 21, with the winner facing either the United States or Australia in the semi-finals.
