Jannik Sinner barely won his previous match at the 2024 Cincinnati Open, but he won it, and now he will try to win in the semi-final against Alexander Zverev to book a final in Cincinnati.
Sinner has never had the best time in Cincinnati before, and this is by far the best he's ever done at this ATP Masters 1000 event. The Italian now has a chance to play in the final, but he will need to beat Zverev to get there.
Getting there took some work because he faced Andrey Rublev in the previous match. It was a hugely complicated match for Sinner, who lost the opening set and was down 3-4, 15-40, in the second set but persevered and won it, outplaying Rublev easily in the final set.
Zverev had a similar complicated match against Ben Shelton. The German also dropped the first set. He stormed back to win the second set and then outplayed the American in the final one to set up this match.
It's a fascinating matchup because they've played some crazy matches in the past. On paper, Sinner is the favorite due to being the number one seed, but Zverev is a tough out on these courts, as evidenced by his previous success at the event.
Head-to-head:
The two have played five times so far, and Zverev is leading the H2H 4-1. Having that score against Sinner is impressive for the German because he's a nightmare matchup for him.
The German likes to play defensive tennis, and hitting through that defense is the only way to defeat him. It's almost impossible with Zverev, but Sinner could do it better than most.
He won their first match in 2020 but then lost four in a row. The most recent match was last year at the US Open, which Zverev won 3-2. It was a spectacular match, but Sinner just wasn't sharp enough.
Zverev plays differently these days; he's not as defensive anymore, and that will be quite interesting to observe. Will Sinner be able to defeat Zverev easily, or will the German do what Andrey Rublev was really close to doing for the second time in two weeks?
It largely depends on the service. In the match with Rublev, we saw that Sinner struggled a lot with the Russian's serve. If Zverev can create pressure similar to the Russian's serve, he will be in this match. If his serve betrays him, Sinner will likely win because he does seem to have found his best level.
| Jannik Sinner | Alexander Zverev | |
| 1 | H2H | 4 |
| 1 | Rank | 4 |
| 23 | Age | 27 |
| 46-5 | 2024 W/L | 52-15 |
| 236-79 | Career W/L | 446-192 |
Prediction:
It's a very tricky matchup to predict because both are playing at a really high level right now. Zverev has the serve, which can be crucial, but Sinner is the far more devastating player in the rallies.
When he finds his rhythm from the baseline, very few players can withstand that. Zverev has had some success in the past, but he might not be able to do that again.
Prediction: Jannik Sinner to win in three sets.
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