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Jannik Sinner has not yet lost a set at the 2020 French Open
Photo: IAN LANGSDON / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
There are days when you would like to stay in bed.
Last Friday in Paris was such a day.
It poured out of buckets for hours, the temperatures were just in the double-digit range and the gloomy daylight reminded more of the end of November than the beginning of October.
For tennis professionals, the French Open have been quite an impertinence in terms of the conditions so far.
Your matches are repeatedly postponed or interrupted, the balls, which are already heavy, become even heavier, and the wet floor additionally slows down the game.
But it doesn't help: the corona pandemic has catapulted the Grand Slam tournament into autumn - and the players have to adapt.
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Jannik Sinner had to wait a long time on Friday for his third round match against the Argentine Federico Coria.
The floodlights at next place 14 had long been switched on when the 19-year-old Italian was finally able to go to work in the early evening.
After all, after almost two and a half hours of play, he had also won his third match at this French Open - without giving up a set.
It was 6: 3, 7: 5 and 7: 5 at the end.
Sinner did not use big cheering gestures, he shyly raised his index finger in the direction of his coach Riccardo Piatti.
Hand-counted 24 spectators witnessed this tennis match.
Sinner, 19, against Zverev, 23
Almost at the same time, Alexander Zverev played his third round game against Mario Cecchinato on the nearby Court Suzanne Lenglen - and won.
He and Sinner will meet in the second round of the tournament (12.15 p.m., TV / Stream: Eurosport / Dazn).
It is the first real sporting highlight at this year's French Open.
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Alexander Zverev in his win against Mario Cecchinato: Praise for the next opponent
Photo: Aurelien Morissard / imago images / Xinhua
When Zverev was asked about the young Italian after his safe 6: 1, 7: 5 and 6: 3 success at the press conference, a sentence slipped out, which he quickly revised: "He certainly has the greatest power in his strokes ever. So he has one of the greatest power ever. "
Germany's best tennis player didn't want to make his opponent that strong.
That he initially used the superlative is understandable.
Sinner plays extremely powerful tennis, long rallies are not his thing.
The South Tyrolean, born in the winter sports resort of Sexten in the middle of the Dolomites, known in his home country as "the red baron" because of the distinctive hair color, quickly looks for the decision, regularly moves up to the network, even on the slow surface in Paris, and steps precisely in the baseline game Lines.
Evert and McEnroe praise the Italian
"His potential is so great that sooner or later he will win Grand Slam titles with it," said John McEnroe at the beginning of the year in a video call to "ESPN" about Sinner.
Chris Evert, the 18-time Grand Slam winner, added in the same round: "He plays as if he belongs on the big stage."
Sinner has now achieved this: The round of 16 against Zverev is the biggest match of his career so far.
"He plays like he belongs on the big stage."
Chris Evert
This might have taken a similarly successful path if Sinner had opted for alpine winter sports instead of tennis.
Between the ages of eight and twelve, the South Tyrolean was one of Italy's top talents in giant slalom.
The fact that he finally decided to play tennis had something to do with the fact that Sinner was tired of skiing against the clock.
"The best thing about tennis is that you can see your opponent. You can see how he reacts, you always see how things are and you know immediately what you have to change," he once said.
As of now, Sinner, currently on position 75 in the world rankings and thus the youngest player in the top 100, does not have to change anything.
"I just have to go on like this, just think from game to game and also take advantage of the fact that I got through the tournament so smoothly here in Paris," said Sinner about Coria after his success.
In particular, his clear three-set win in the first lap over the Belgian David Goffin, who was number eleven, gave him a boost and confidence.
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So now the opponent is called Zverev.
The German is only four years older than Sinner and is currently shaking with other young players like Stefanos Tsitsipas (22), Dominic Thiem (27) or Daniil Medwedew (24) at the dominance of the three veterans Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Sinner currently ranks a little behind the aforementioned.
But even a win against US Open finalist Zverev would bring him closer to the "Next Gen" stars.
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