"Before the match we didn’t know each other at all": Terence Atmane breaks the ice with birthday boy Jannik Sinner as World No.1 receives gift

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner marked his 24th birthday in perfect fashion at the Cincinnati Open, producing a dominant serving display to secure his place in another final as he saw off French revelation Terence Atmane who has been superb this past week. But Sinner was in no mood to hand out any birthday presents of his own despite receiving one from Atmane.

“It’s a tough question, but I’m always here,” Sinner smiled to Tennis Channel when asked how often he’d won on his birthday. “I’ve been coming here for some years now, and usually, I have it in my mind that I play a first or second round match. There were a couple of years where I played on the Grandstand, the first match at 11. I do remember the match against Kokkinakis. I’m always here, so I’m very happy. It’s a very special place to be. I’m happy about today’s performance—I made a good present for myself. Mostly, I’m very happy to have very nice people around me, who make me the person I am. Everything went very well today.”

Sinner was almost untouchable on serve, dropping only three points on his first delivery and never facing a break point. He explained: “Today I served in a different way. Obviously, serving against a lefty is a bit different. I tried to mix up my service spots quite well. He’s a great returner too—he stands far back—so I tried to mix it up. I even served and volleyed sometimes, which is not usually my game style. But at the same time, I have to do it if I want to become a better tennis player. Today the serve was on point. Maybe in the first set I won with a little bit of experience, being a bit more solid in the breaker. Then I got lucky to get the break in the second set. I’m very happy.”

For the Italian, improvements never stop, even while holding the world’s top ranking. “For sure, sometimes serve and volley, sometimes mixing up the game with the slice,” he said when asked what else he was working on. “Here it’s a bit more difficult to play around with the heights. It’s only the first couple of shots where you have time to make it—or when you go back to return, you aim for a little bit more time with the ball in the air. But also the volleying, I feel like I still have a little bit of room to improve, which is good from my point of view. Of course, making the serve more stable like today would be good.”

Before stepping onto court, Sinner received a light-hearted birthday surprise from fellow player Terence Atmane, who presented him with a Pokémon card. “No, I used to play,” Sinner laughed when asked if he was a Pokémon fan. “There was this game on our phone where you had to capture the Pokémon. I do remember I had it for two or three days and then I didn’t play. But I was just talking with him a bit in the locker room—he has one of the biggest collections of Pokémon cards. I’m very lucky that I got one of his. It was just a nice moment. Before the match we didn’t know each other at all, so it was really nice.”

The card? “It was a kind of Pikachu, yeah. It said it does 30 damage to itself—I don’t know if that’s good or not. That was just on the card. But no, he gave me a good one, I’m sure.”

Sinner will now face Carlos Alcaraz in Monday’s final, at the time he had not yet beaten Alexander Zverev. “It's going to be a very difficult match. Playing finals is what I love to do—it’s the spot where I want to be in tournaments. This year has been amazing for me, I’ve made some great runs. Usually, finals are on Sundays, and I always say Sunday is a great day to be in. Here, it’s Monday, but it’s going to be very special. It’s going to be a Magic Monday.”

The celebrations didn’t end there. On court, Sinner was presented with a strawberry birthday cake. “Thank you so much,” he said as he received it. “I have to share it with my team. Is that okay? Lovely. Strawberries. I do like this look.” Comparing it to Wimbledon’s famous strawberries and the cakes in the Royal Box, he grinned: “A bit different. I don’t want to go into details, but it’s very good.”