Sinner Steps In After Heartbreak For Italy To Force Deciding Doubles At Davis Cup

| by Evita Mueller

Just days after contesting the ATP Finals final, Jannik Sinner returned to the courts at the Davis Cup Final Eight showdown, winning Italy a crucial point to stay in contention for the semi-finals.

Italy has had one of the better tennis rosters for a while now but can never figure things out. Somebody is always missing; even this year, they don't have the full roster.

Matteo Berrettini is out with an injury, but Jannik Sinner signed up to play. That wasn't the case last year, and it's a huge boost considering his recent form. The stakes were high against Tallon Griekspoor.

Italy would have been out if he had lost the match, as Matteo Arnaldi had lost to Botic van de Zandschulp earlier today. So what did Sinner do? Well, he won, of course, but it was a very tricky match which was expected.

Griekspoor is a tough player to break indoors when he's in rhythm, and it proved true once more. The opening set went to a tiebreak as both players dominated on their serve.

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Sinner had some break chances earlier in the set but couldn't convert, while Griekspoor had none. Despite taking an early mini-break, the Italian quickly established control and won the opening set.

He started the second set with an early break as he was completely on top of his opponent by now dominating play. It's not unheard of that Griekspoor falls apart at times, and that's what happened here.

He wasn't sharp enough to stay with Sinner long-term to begin with but it unraveled in the second set. The final score ended up being 7-6(2) 6-1 for the Italian who will now hope that the doubles pull through.

Perhaps Sinner does double duty as well. We'll see what happens in the coming hours, but it's a must-win for Italy.

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