ANALYSIS: How did Jannik Sinner make all comers at US Open look like beginners?

Jannik Sinner won the 2024 US Open, and he was quite impressive, leaving many players looking pretty lacklustre out there. So how did he do it? Let’s take a closer look.

Before we dig deeper into how he achieved it, there are a few things we need to mention first. Jannik Sinner has been the best hard-court player this year with a 25-2 record on the surface heading into the event. He had only lost two matches on it before the tournament: one against Carlos Alcaraz in Indian Wells and the other against Andrey Rublev in Montreal.

He was also the reigning world number one, having won 4 trophies on hard courts up until that year, including the recently concluded Cincinnati Open. He was, in many ways, the favourite to win this event because he’s been so dominant on the surface.

There were other great players in the draw, but if we look at form and everything else, Sinner was hugely expected to do really well, if not win the event. So, noticing that, his victory wasn’t that big of a surprise, but he did it by making everybody look quite amateurish. Let’s now take a look at why that happened.

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If you beat everybody comfortably en route to the trophy, you're going to make a lot of people look foolish. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll break down each of his matches to understand why he won so comfortably.

In the first round, he faced Mackenzie McDonald, and for a while, the American proved to be quite tough. Sinner looked in trouble, but it was mostly due to him starting rather slow. Once he finally got on a roll, he dispatched his opponent without too many problems, mostly from the baseline. As solid as McDonald is, he’s not the greatest hitter, and Sinner was simply able to overwhelm him from the baseline and cruise to an easy finish.

The second match against Alex Michelsen was the one that put everyone on notice. He utterly smashed the American, and once again, it was the baseline aggression that did the trick. He was hitting the ball consistently into the corners with enough force that his opponent couldn’t really send it back effectively. It’s a big problem for any tennis player to solve because, in most rallies, it comes down to that. Sinner also has a pretty good return, which helps him set up his shots, and his serve was working well in most matches.

Jannik Sinner pictured with girlfriend Anna Kalinskaya was utterly sublime.

The next match against Christopher O’Connell didn’t bring anything different. Sinner was once again very dominant, winning in straight sets, and most of those weren’t even close. The Italian was simply on fire from the baseline, and O’Connell, like the opponents before him, didn’t have an answer. When you’re facing one of the best hitters in the world, you're going to be in trouble if you don’t bring some strong hitting yourself.

Tommy Paul brought plenty of hitting in the next match, and it’s no surprise that it was the closest match Sinner had played up until that point. The first two sets went to tiebreaks because Sinner wasn’t as sharp as he could have been, and Paul brought a lot of heat to the matchup. The American is known as one of the best hitters when he truly finds his rhythm, and he was playing a decent match. It wasn’t the best he could have shown, but it was pretty good overall, which is why it was so close.

The next match against Daniil Medvedev was the first one where Sinner dropped a set, but it wasn’t necessarily a close contest. All the sets were won comfortably by the victor, and once again, Sinner dominated. Medvedev is a defensive player who likes to play long rallies and wait for his chance to counter-attack, but that’s not a good strategy against Sinner. The Italian will just step into the court and hit a winner. That’s exactly what he did all night long against Medvedev, winning the match fairly comfortably. This was against a player many consider one of the toughest to beat on hard courts, showing just how well Sinner was playing.

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Jack Draper was his opponent in the semi-final, and while it was a somewhat close match, Draper was soon overwhelmed. He was mostly overwhelmed by the occasion because he wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t play at his best. On paper, he had the game to hurt Sinner, but he was unable to because he didn’t feel 100% on the court. Still, being a super aggressive baseliner is how you beat Sinner, which is why some gave Taylor Fritz a chance in the final. It didn’t happen because Fritz wasn’t good enough with his hitting. He tried and, at times, had success, but overall, he made too many unforced errors to truly trouble Sinner.

In essence, Sinner made everyone look like beginners because he was simply the better player. No one he faced came close to beating him, not even remotely. The only player who won a set against him, outside of that fluke one against McDonald, was Medvedev, and even that match wasn’t very close.

Sinner’s talent and form elevated him to a level much higher than that of his opponents, which is why the matches didn’t look as close as you might expect for a Grand Slam event. The Italian is world number one for this exact reason. He’s been consistently better than the rest, and a 57-5 record this year certainly proves that.

He’s in pole position to finish the year as world number one as well, and if he keeps playing the way he did in Cincinnati and New York, he’s all but guaranteed to get it done. That’s what happens when you’re as dominant as him and you make everybody you play look like a beginner. It’s in the description, making everyone look like a beginner and that’s how he does it.  

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