Jannik Sinner’s hand was shaking as he dried his face, poured cold water over his head and put a damp towel around his neck during the break in the middle of the third round. No one who looks like the Italian looked at that moment should exercise for more than a few minutes in the shade at more than 30 degrees – the thermometer even showed 33 degrees. At this point, Sinner and Holger Rune (Denmark) had already fought each other for two hours and had rallies that made you sweat just watching. In the second set, for example, when Rune played a lob over Sinner, he was sent back with a lob, chased into the corners, lured forward and then passed. Both of them were already standing on the edge of the field with an I-can’t-do-anymore look.
It was later 3:2 in the aforementioned Sinner moment with 1:1 sets in the best-of-five round of 16, which meant: It would still take a while. Sinner was led into the catacombs, so the 21-year-old Dane was seen dealing with this medically-related time off. He really wants to achieve what Sinner, who is only two years older, has already achieved: a Grand Slam victory. And that includes dealing with these situations.
After the break, Sinne plays as if he had never been exhausted
So Rune sat there and he didn’t really know what to do with himself. He was exhausted himself, a break certainly wouldn’t do any harm – on the other hand, of course, he wasn’t allowed to rest too much, because he didn’t know what kind of sinner would come back to the pitch: someone whose hand continued to tremble, who certainly wouldn’t last longer than one more would last a few minutes – or a stricken tennis player, who, like stricken boxers, is one of the most dangerous creatures there is in sport.
Answer: The most dangerous sinner imaginable came. He ran as if he had never been exhausted and just a few minutes later he got the decisive break in the set. He didn’t let it bother him that the net broke after a cracking forehand from him and it actually took more than 20 minutes until it was repaired. The defending champion, who also has the unsolved doping case hanging over his head, weathered the bout of weakness and break with routine, and Sinner won 6:3, 3:6, 6:3, 6:4 against Rune, who was increasingly restless at the end.
“The morning was already strange; I didn’t warm up. “I knew it would be tricky,” he said on the pitch after the game: “I just tried to be there mentally.” That was him, and that is of course a clear message to the competition: It can be done be that I seem broken; But that doesn’t mean I can’t handle it.
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