The tenacity with which he avoided the third set is part of a precise plan: “If I want to have a long career, I have to give my all in as few tournaments as possible and take care of my body.”

Jannik Sinner is a robot programmed to last a long time. To last a long time while maintaining extremely high performance. Take his last match against Diallo, which left him so dissatisfied that he immediately returned to the court for a training session focused on his serve (50% first serves). In the second-set tiebreak, the Canadian earned a set point and fired a venomous serve down the middle, but the Italian responded with a forehand down the line to erase the specter of a third set, which would have prolonged the effort and sapped his energy. This inimitable ability to stay focused on the point and extract the maximum from the most complicated situations is not simply linked to the present. It is part of a broader plan.

It is as if Sinner, who reached number 1 in the rankings at 22 years and 9 months and is still at the top just a few days before his 24th birthday, adopts a dual approach in every decision he makes: giving his all now and, at the same time, laying the foundations to maintain the competitive advantage he has gained. In other words: to dominate tennis for years and years. He explained it himself after beating Diallo: “My goal is to play as many matches as possible with as few tournaments as possible. If I want to have a long career, I sometimes need to stop, work hard physically to make sure my body keeps going.” Clear words, clear thinking. It is a challenge thrown down to Carlos Alcaraz who, unlike Sinner, shows ups and downs during matches that are, on paper, winnable, with the consequence of spending many more hours on court: in 2025, of the Spaniard’s 32 victories in three-set matches (excluding Slams), a third (11) went to the third set, including his debut in Cincinnati against Dzumhur.

After his triumph at Wimbledon, the South Tyrolean has rediscovered his favorite surface. On hard court, where he has two consecutive titles to defend (Cincinnati and the US Open), he scored his 23rd consecutive victory last night. Since 2000, only four players have achieved this feat, and what players they are: Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic (the last to do so in 2020). Against Diallo, his serve was not flawless, but his forehand was. As noted by Tennis Data Innovations, in his first two matches in Cincinnati, the shot that has been lethal in recent years (the backhand has always been part of Sinner’s DNA) recorded impressive numbers: an “insight score” of 9.6 against Galan and 9.1 against Diallo. This metric combines all the data to show the overall performance level of that shot. Considering that the scale ranges from 0 to 10 and that the average for players on the circuit is 7.5, Jannik’s forehand in recent days is close to perfection.