Written by 
Match Reaction
Sinner on De Minaur win: ‘I’m glad I managed this level’
Italian powers past De Minaur in Nitto ATP Finals opener
November 10, 2024
.jpg)
Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Jannik Sinner extends his winning streak to seven matches.
By Jerome Coombe
After one month without competitive tennis, perhaps Jannik Sinner surprised himself with the calibre of tennis he produced on Sunday night at the Nitto ATP Finals.
The No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings admitted to feeling some rust in the early stages of his opening match against debutant Alex de Minaur, but it wasn’t long before he was near his blistering best. After trailing an early break, Sinner found his rhythm and wrapped up victory in 85 minutes to kick-start his quest for a maiden trophy at the prestigious season finale.
“I’m glad that I managed to play this kind of level today,” said Sinner, whose last tour-level match was his Shanghai Masters triumph in October. “It’s a great start for my side for this event, for this tournament, considering I haven’t played an official match in four weeks.
“Every match, it’s very difficult to play against him. He’s a great fighter. You have to earn every point you play. Every time we play, he changes a couple of things, so I have to be very aware. It’s very difficult. We don’t have to see only the result, but also how the match goes.”
Sinner, who notched his Tour-leading 66th win of 2024 (alongside Alexander Zverev), is bidding to become just the third player to win the Australian Open, US Open and Nitto ATP Finals in one season (Federer, Djokovic). With his win over De Minaur, the 23-year-old is level with Taylor Fritz – his next opponent – at the top of the Ilie Nastase Group.
“He [Fritz] has improved a lot in the past one and a half, two years,” added Sinner, who leads Fritz 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. “He’s serving much better [and] hitting the ball very, very hard. He’s a great competitor.
“I have to be at my top if I want to win or if I want to get close. I practised with him at the beginning of the week. It was a very tough practice set. It’s going to be tough, this I know. I know that I have to raise my level. Hopefully I can do that, then we see how it goes.”