Sinner's Dominance Called 'A Joke' And 'Absurd' By Former US Open Champion

Friday, 22 November 2024 at 11:40

byJordan Reynolds

Jannik Sinner produced incredible tennis at the ATP Finals, and 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick could not hide his admiration for the Italian.

Sinner was the favorite for the ATP Finals before the tournament began. Therefore, beating Taylor Fritz in the final to secure his maiden title at the season-ending tournament was unsurprising.

However, how Sinner won the tournament was impressive, even by his very high standards. He reached the semifinal without dropping a set after round-robin victories against Alex de Minaur, Fritz, and Daniil Medvedev.

The world No. 1 then dismantled Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-2 before triumphing against Fritz for the second time in the event, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. That meant Sinner became the first man to win the ATP Finals without losing a set since Ivan Lendl in 1986.

It was Sinner's eighth title of his breakthrough 2024 season. He won his maiden Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open and finished as the year-end No. 1 in the ATP rankings.

2024 has also been a special year for Italian tennis overall. Jasmine Paolini, who reached the French Open and Wimbledon titles this season, concluded 2024 by winning the Billie Jean King Cup with Italy and reflected on an amazing year for Italian tennis afterward.

Sinner is currently in Malaga representing his country at the Davis Cup Finals. Italy was in trouble in the quarterfinal after Francisco Cerundolo gave Argentina a 1-0 lead, meaning the 23-year-old needed to beat Sebastian Baez.

But victory never looked in doubt after Sinner stepped onto the court. The US Open champion demolished Baez 6-2, 6-1 before partnering with Matteo Berrettini to win the deciding doubles match and confirm a semifinal tie with Australia.

Sinner has now won 22 consecutive sets at ATP Tour level. Speaking on an episode of his podcast Served with Andy Roddick, the American said the lack of close matches at the ATP Finals felt weird but called the world No. 1's level a joke.

"It was fun. It was weird in turn. There weren't that many close matches, right? It was, I think there was like one 3-setter, Fritz got through. But Jannik Sinner was a joke. I mean in the best possible way."

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"He put up score lines, I wanna say it was like 4 and 3, 2 and 4, 4 and 4. He basically had to score 1 and 4 in the semis against Casper and then 4 and 4 again against Fritz in the final."

Roddick called Sinner's performances on hard courts in 2024 a joke and feels the easy victories he managed at the ATP Finals had score lines reminiscent of a teenager playing at a state tournament or a good junior player dominating.

"Doing, checking his TC live and then checking his score lines, it's the score lines that you used to drop on people when you were 16 playing like in your state tournaments."

"And if you were a really good junior, but like, and then kind of take that out and expand it to the best on earth with no two year age groups. What he's done on hard courts this year is absurd."