Jannik Sinner started his 2024 China Open title defense with a hard-fought win over Nicolas Jarry, and after the victory, the Italian spoke about what needs to improve.
Sinner hasn't played any tennis matches since the US Open, which he won. The Italian outplayed everyone over the course of two weeks to claim his second Grand Slam trophy. It was the hammer on the nail in the 'best player in the world' discussion because he proved himself to be the best this year.
He's ranked number one on the ATP Tour and arrived in Beijing as the top player in the world, ready to defend his trophy from last year. The first-round matchup was tough as he faced Nicolas Jarry, who had a good run at the ATP 500 event in Beijing last year.
The Chilean hasn't been in great form this year, especially lately, but he found something in the Chinese capital. He gave Sinner far more trouble than the Italian thought he would, as Jarry won the opening set.
However, Sinner managed to maintain control of the match. He quickly took an early break in the second set to turn around the momentum and never looked back, winning the second and third sets to win the match.
Sinner's performance wasn't the best, and he was clearly not the happiest about the way it went, signaling that quite a few parts of his game need improvement.
He highlighted the second serve as needing work, admitting that he's been working on it since the US Open. He's generally improved his serving quite a bit in recent years.
"The second serve I still have to improve a little bit. From after US Open we worked very hard (on the serve). I’m happy about my process, obviously there is still a lot of room to improve."
As for the match itself, Sinner praised his opponent for playing well. Jarry had his serve working spectacularly well in the opening set, and the top seed couldn’t quite return it effectively.
He tried various tactics to motivate himself to stay in the match, and it worked out for him because he won. However, it was a good reminder that he can't afford to stay behind because a solid player like Jarry can still give him plenty of problems.
"He played some very good tennis, the first set, he was serving very well, I was struggling to return his serve. I just tried to stay there mentally, first round is always tough, playing against him is very tough. Happy about the performance and how I ended the match."
Overall, the most important thing for Sinner was to win the match, which he was able to do and move on. He's the top seed and expects himself to do well in Beijing, which would mean winning the trophy.
Obviously, with his rival Carlos Alcaraz also in the draw, there might be some complications, but they can only meet in the final, and there's a lot of tennis to be played until then.