Tennis coach
Patrick Mouratoglou believes that 2024 might
turn out to be the ‘year of
Jannik Sinner’ after Italy’s tennis star’s recent
success.
The 2022-year-old is often regarded as one of the most
highly-rated players currently playing in the circuit along side Spain’s Carlos
Alcaraz.
Sinner lived up to the hype in the recently concluded
Australian Open where he lifted the title after beating the current world
number three Russia’s Daniil Medvedev with a score of 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Mouratoglou was recently quoted in a report where he backed
Sinner to outshine every other player currently playing in the men’s singles category
this year.
“What was very impressive with Sinner is that he was able to
play the match that we expected from him,” he said. “Novak was not there [in
the semi-finals] but Sinner played the exact match he was supposed to play. When
he played his first Grand Slam final, he was able to deliver, and do this until
the end of the match—deliver his level. He could have choked a lot at the end.
He did not choke.
“His level of play was very constant, and the quality of the
tennis he was playing was extremely high, and high enough to win a Grand Slam.
The only question mark was would he be able to deliver that in a Grand Slam
final, and he gave the answer to that in the best possible way.
“He won the Davis Cup and that’s an incredible boost. It
reminds me of 2011 for Novak. We had this discussion with Tony Roche at the
Australian Open [in] 2011,” he said in an interview with Tennis Majors.
“We were discussing exactly the same topic: ‘who’s gonna
play well this year?’ I don’t remember who I said, but I didn’t say Novak, and
he said, ‘I think Djokovic is going to win, he’s going to be the one this
year.’
“And I said, ‘why do you say that’. And he said, ‘because
what he did at Davis Cup, winning for his country, being the guy that brought
all the points. I think it’s an incredible boost of confidence for the next
year.’
“And 2011 was the year of Novak. That’s the year that he
really won most of everything. Beat Rafa – I don’t know how many times – even
on clay several times. So that was his year. And I think it (2024) can be the
year of Jannik. I think Novak has an edge, but I think he can play incredible
this year.”