Former Italian ATP player Adriano Panatta talked about Jannik Sinner recently, stating that Novak Djokovic can't beat the Italian due to the Italian's mentality.
Sinner recently added a second Grand Slam title to his cabinet, becoming the second player this year to win two majors. It’s the first time since 2017 that Djokovic wasn’t able to get his hands on a major trophy, as Alcaraz and Sinner won two apiece.
The Italian player swept the hard court majors, winning both the Australian Open and the US Open, the former including a win over Djokovic en route to the trophy. Next year will be quite interesting, as Sinner will try to keep dominating on hard courts, but the best player on that surface in the previous decade and more will certainly want to get into the mix.
Djokovic wouldn’t want to finish a second year in a row without any majors, but beating Sinner might be too challenging for him. It doesn’t look very likely with the way both have been trending lately, and former player Panatta thinks it's impossible for Djokovic due to how the Italian approaches tennis.
Speaking in the La Telefoneta podcast, Panatta noted similarities between Sinner and Mike Tyson due to how both are very concrete in the way they approach their sports. Sinner doesn't wait on the court, similar to how Tyson didn't wait to punch people during his fights.
"Sinner is the only player who comes onto the court and doesn’t wait. I think of Tyson in the first matches, when he came in and hit until the other fell to the ground. Sinner has this mentality: he plays, then he can even miss a few balls, but he plays the match, he never waits."
Sinner does bring a big punch to his matches, which can be overwhelming. Djokovic might be better equipped than others to deal with that, but he still struggled greatly against the Italian when they played in the past year.
The Serbian has beaten the youngster at the ATP Finals, for example, so it's still possible, even though Djokovic's level has been trending downward since then, which hasn't been the case for Sinner.
Panatta thinks the only player that can beat his compatriot at the moment is Alcaraz when he's playing his best and in form, but he doesn't see it from Djokovic. The 23-year-old has been too solid this year, with only five losses so far, two of which have come against Alcaraz.
"This is the big difference between him and the others, it’s what Alcaraz does when he is in form, and in fact he is the only one who can beat him. I don’t even think Djokovic can do it, maybe two sets out of three, not three out of five. Sinner never drops, he never does stupid things."
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