Jannik Sinner once again won a crucial match for Italy, this time beating Sebastian Baez at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.
Last year, Sinner proved to be a national hero for Italy. In the quarter-finals of the 2023 Davis Cup Finals, he first bested Tallon Griekspoor before teaming up with Lorenzo Sonego in doubles, winning both matches to secure the semi-final after Italy was down 0-1.
In the semi-finals, he completed the same comeback against Serbia, beating Novak Djokovic in singles and then teaming up with Sonego in doubles again to beat Djokovic and Miomir Kecmanovic. In the final, Sinner's one singles win was enough to beat Australia 2-0 and win the competition.
This year, the 23-year-old might need to be a hero of his country once again if they hope to win the competition. In the first singles match of their quarter-final tie against Italy, Lorenzo Musetti lost to Francisco Cerundolo, 4-6, 1-6.
That meant that Sinner once again had to win his singles match if he wanted to keep his country's hopes alive. Coming to Malaga after his win at the ATP Finals, the World No. 1 player was in great form.
He dominated against Baez from the first rally. He broke him already in the fourth game to lead 3-1, and a few games later, he added another break of serve to win the first set 6-2.
In the second set, Sinner was similarly ruthless. He started the set with a streak of five consecutive games won, even having a streak when he won 15 out of 17 rallies played.
He was just too devastating for his opponent and in an hour and 14 minutes of play, Sinner was able to win the match 6-2, 6-1 to level the score of the tie to 1-1.
Following the win, he was naturally very happy about winning for Italy again, especially after having so much success individually, he wanted to play in team environment as well.
"It was a must-win match. Very different conditions. The court is very very fast and tough to play. I haven’t had much time to adapt to the conditions, but I’m happy about today."
"The last part of the year is always tough. It’s nice to have the teammates to push you through. This is the last step of the season... So it’s nice to have team competition."
Initially, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori were nominated for Italy's doubles match against Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, but already after his singles win, Sinner suggested that a change in nomination might be coming.
"The most important was to keep Italy alive. In doubles, anything can happen. Last year we had great memories. Let’s see what’s coming."
It came almost immediately after his win, as Sinner and Matteo Berrettini replaced Bolelli and Vavassori to take on the Argentinian duo. Sinner will be hoping to have success on the doubles court again.