© Hu Chengwei / Stringer Getty Images Sport
FOLLOW
Former American tennis legend Jimmy Connors shared some beautiful praising words for the young Italian Jannik Sinner. The Asian tour, despite the defeat suffered against Ben Shelton in the round of 16 of the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai, gave great satisfaction to the new world no.4.
The Italian tennis player, playing in China for the first time, won the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing during a week that saw him struggle with a serious flu.
Sinner never gave up and overcame the difficulties encountered in the first three matches with great courage.
With Daniel Evans, Jannik suffered cramps while against Grigor Dimitrov he even vomited before the third and decisive set.
Sinner completed the masterpiece and defeated Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final and final respectively.
Only Dusan Lajovic in Banja Luka and Medvedev in Dubai had beaten the top two seeds at the same event in 2023.
Jimmy Connors shares praising words for Jannik Sinner
In Shanghai, Sinner then officially obtained qualification for the ATP Finals in Turin thanks to his success in the second round against Marcos Giron.
In addition to Sinner, the Masters Tournaments goal Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev have already achieved.
Jimmy Connors, in the latest episode of his Advantage Connors podcast, talked about Sinner, explaining: “If I ever lost service, discouraged would be the last word I would have used.
You have to immediately put pressure on your opponent and Sinner seems to have this quality. It’s something that seems to bother him.”
Connors then commented on the final of the Beijing tournament: “Medvedev has played excellent tennis this year, especially on hard courts.
So beating him by winning two tie-breaks is something very strong. These are things that I like. Sinner reached his best ranking of fourth, but I think he has the potential to rise even higher.”
Meanwhile, Sinner has chosen to remove himself from the entry list of the ATP 250 in Antwerp.
A flat rate announced by the Italian player himself in one of the last press conferences at the ATP Master 1000 in Shanghai, in which he was asked what the program agreed with the team was for the season finale.
