"It's a wonderful feeling, maybe I still have to process everything. The emotion is huge, winning a match like that, first Slam final, two sets down against a Medvedev who honestly played incredible tennis, he was very good and deserved it because he has a beastly strength of spirit". These are the words of the coach of Jannik Sinner, Simone Vagnozzi a super tennis after the success at the Australian Open of the Italian champion.
“How do you explain Sinner's start to the match? We expected Medvedev to start strong and aggressive, because he was coming from a long tournament and didn't want the rallies to get longer, but we didn't expect him to do it so well, because a Medvedev like that on the baseline, serving 85% of first serves, with no errors, Jannik found himself in a bit of trouble. He certainly didn't start very well, especially on serve, but it could have happened in his first Slam final with a bit more tension”.
“Then I think that at 5-1 in the second set, when Jannik broke him, he changed the inertia of the match a bit, he had the chance at 5-3 to get back into the second set, you could see the first cracks in Medvedev. He took a step back, he was a bit less aggressive, he played a meter further back. We saw a bit of light and Jannik was good at staying close at the start of the third set and then slowly bringing it home”, continued Vagnozzi.
“Medvedev then managed to keep a constant level from the third onwards. Jannik was unable to break him those times that Medvedev tried to speed up the rallies a bit, doing some serve and volley, he had some chances, but he didn't succeed and he also found himself in difficulty in situations at 30 all, I remember in the fifth a rallies in the first game, maybe with 40 shots. However, Jannik already cultivates the ball better, in the end, even though he was perhaps a bit more tired, he was able to do it better, even if it was complicated”.
Sinner's performance in Australia was no surprise. “We work with Jannik every day, we know what a worker he is, what level he has, and we knew he could do well here in Australia. As we said, we didn't come with the idea of necessarily winning this Slam, but to try to go as far as possible and live every match as a final. And then of course when you get to the final, you want to win and nothing, the emotion is huge, and I still have to metabolise a bit”, added Vagnozzi.
“Now the first thing to do is definitely recover, try to take all the confidence you can take from this tournament, get your feet on the ground, work and continue. The year has just begun, it's long and so we have to, on the one hand take all the good things, but then get back down to earth, get back to work, nobody gives you anything here. So we go back to the usual routine but with a little something important in our pockets. How do you manage this evening? The managers will take care of it, I think we'll do something private, a good meal, a bit of alcohol, so tomorrow we can sleep on the flight all the time”, concluded Sinner's coach.
Article published on 28 January 2024 - 16:23
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