Jannik Sinner and his team have to deal with a lot of pressure at the 2024 US Open, but according to his coach, Simone Vagnozzi, everything has been going smoothly.
The Italian player entered the last Grand Slam tournament of the season with a lot of pressure. Not because he would be the overwhelming favorite to win, despite being the World No. 1 player, but this time, because of a different reason.
Shortly before the start of the last major of the season, news broke out about Sinner testing positive twice for a banned substance, clostebol. It was a massive shock for everyone, and the 23-year-old knew that as soon as he touched down at Flushing Meadows, he would have to face a lot of questions about the 'doping saga.'
That proved to be correct, despite a questionable effort from the press conference moderator to shut down more than one question about the case. Sinner wasn't bothered by the questions and answered every single one of them.
He could then focus on his tennis. In his first match, he lost the opening set of the match 2-6 but rallied to win in four sets. Since the first lost set in the first round, he went on to win 13 consecutive sets before Daniil Medvedev was able to win one set against him.
Up next, he will face a player who has an even more impressive record at the US Open this year. Jack Draper won all 14 sets that he played, and that's why he might prove to be a really difficult challenge for the World No. 1 player on the ATP Tour.
The two are good friends, and ahead of their semi-final matchup at the 2024 US Open, Sinner's coach, Simone Vagnozzi, talked with SuperTennisTV about the upcoming matchup.
"Draper is one of the most promising young players on the circuit. We have known him for a long time and we expect a challenge full of pitfalls. He has had several injuries in recent years that have slowed his growth."
"He is playing with the wind in his sails, he has little to prove considering that he has already achieved his best result and that he is playing against the world number 1. He will try to play above the rhythm and Jannik will have to be good, especially at the beginning of the match, to manage the situation."
Obviously, the 41-year-old coach also got to the topic of the two positive tests. Vagnozzi explained that within a team, there are, naturally, always some problems to deal with.
Of course, this one was probably of the greatest magnitude, but still, the team remained focused on the task at hand, and that was doing well at tournaments, in this particular case, the US Open.
"There are always difficulties within a team, but in the difficulty it is fundamental to try to remain united, as much as possible. And this is what we did. We stayed on target, day after day, also because some things you can't control and we couldn't do anything but stay on top of things."
Vagnozzi also revealed that the team has agreed that they won't open the topic anymore as it is a closed chapter for them, which, luckily for Sinner and his team, ended well.
"We were good, but above all Jannik was good because he is the one who goes on the court. We have a clear conscience, for us it is a closed chapter."
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