Jannik Sinner, beaten 7-5 6-4 by Rafa Nadal, he leaves the Central very angry. After 10 seconds from the handshake at the net he is already in the locker room tunnel. It means a lot, a lot: more than with the draw, which already in the second round put in front of him an Everest to climb,. The mental click is that he is no longer enough to look great against the legends: Sinner takes it out on himself, in a match that saw him play evenly, gives the feeling of wanting to improve trade after trade, but to win these kinds of games (and long trades against people like Nadal) it is not the time yet.
It’s a shame this was the last game played behind closed doors: it was a very real match, with Sinner that in the first set he took off the whim of making the break twice to the nine-time winner of this tournament. Rafa, however, was not in the least scratched and, in Sinner’s shifts following the two breaks, he was immediately resumed what the blue had stolen from him. Nadal the victory had to be conquered all: to close the first set alone he had to use seven set points.
But among the reasons why Nadal “could not have met a worse opponent for the opening match” (his words, yesterday at the press conference) there is also the fact that Sinner doesn’t know the meaning of the emotional breakdown. Jannik got back to rowing, took the break in the third game and took it back to the eighth, when Nadal returned to 4-4 despite the blue having won the first two points of the game. Sinner wanted to enjoy the game to the last point: he canceled three match points in the tenth game (the second with a splendid short ball), before giving up on the fourth and receiving yet another compliments. «Jannik is an incredible player – says Nadal -. He will have a great career ».
Sonego wins the derby with Mager
There are two other Italians in the second round of final. Said of Stefano Travaglia’s defeat against Denis Shapovalov, the first to qualify was Lorenzo Sonego, in the challenge that would surely have brought a blue on Thursday since it was a derby: the Turin he beat his friend Gianluca Mager with a double 6-4. Such a friend that, at the end of the game before leaving the field, the two started chatting analyzing what had just happened. Waiting for Sonego, tomorrow, there is Dominic Thiem, number 4 in the world but back from a complicated period in which he talked about his personal and motivational problems following his victory at the US Open.
Berrettini advances
And then the idol of the house, Matteo Berrettini,
who, after struggling in the first round against the Georgian Basilashvili, liquidated the Australian 6-4 6-2 Millman. Also for Berrettini a tough commitment in the second round, against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, winner of the first Masters 1000 on clay in Monte Carlo and that Berrettini did not face in Melbourne because he was injured. But for Matteo tomorrow there is an additional ally, the public, admitted (until Sunday) in the percentage of 25% on the three main fields, including the Central. “Daje Roma I’ll wait for you”, the message written on the camera with a marker: it can’t be clearer than that.
May 12, 2021 (change May 12, 2021 | 21:47)
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