Sinner being broken 3 times in the same set is not a good look. But a win is a win.
The big positive is Sinner being the one surviving fitness battles nowadays.

 

Well, Atmane proving himself to perhaps be less fluky than I thought. Though I still doubt he will ever be truly consistent.

 

Jannik's serve is soo slow. He hardly gets any free point with it. 54% 1st serve points won and 38% won on 2nd serve in Set 2.💀 Broken to love two times in a row. 😅These are Sara Errani's kind of stats 😅

 

"🎙 On trying new things:
“Yeah, very difficult. I put in some serve and volleys. At times it worked very well, sometimes not. I also sometimes have to find the right shot also to do it. Sometimes I don’t wait for the right one. But the more things I’m trying to add now, hopefully more positives come in a couple months or so. But again, I try to fight. I’m trying to win as many matches as possible. Being again in the quarters means a lot to me. So let’s see what’s coming next round. I’m looking forward to it.” 🇮🇹❤"


Great approach.

 

Sinner was experimenting but even then it was kinda ugly...I'm surprised he was inconsistent on the baseline this match when that's the part of Sinner's game that didn't need to change much IMO.

 

Sinner's level has dropped since Wimbledon. He's leaking more errors and that's why lost the second set, same as he struggled at the USO before he lost to Alcaraz, serving woes aside. It has nothing to do with "experimenting".

 

Sinner's level has dropped since Wimbledon. He's leaking more errors and that's why lost the second set, same as he struggled at the USO before he lost to Alcaraz, serving woes aside. It has nothing to do with "experimenting".

EDIT: 27 errors is a lot, yes. Not ideal number.

 

What was Sinner experimenting with?

 

S&V, slice, net approaches + volleying after that, dropshots, different service speeds and types. Sometimes it was a bit shaky, but it was fine overall. He tried the same thing in the previous round against Cilic.

 

This should be the trickiest match of the week for Jannik and he got through it. Atmane clearly likes to peak against him.

 

Most lower-ranked players can't beat Sinner even when they peak against him and he's not at his best.
Which is why the Kazakh comebacker probably deserves the credit for getting the win against Sinner in Halle this year (as well as moving on to win the title).

 

Atmane shows his TOP30 level in China again

 

Clostebot showing more weakness post US Open, I hope this fraud is being exposed next months.

 

LOL @ Sinner's serve. The dude hasn't picked up a clue yet since RG/US Open apparently.

 

Binner needs to hire Sampras himself at this point. That's his only hope.

 

Sinner is now losing sets to players I've never heard of
wow

 

Sinner should have won this in 2 but he fucked up with those "variations"

In my opinion variety in tennis is overrated

 

I wasn't a Sinner fan until recently. But just the fact that he is willing to try and add variety and slices and even risk losing, made me a fan. This is the way.

 

I think the standard "variety" in tennis is indeed a bit overrated. That's not what Alcaraz does. So no point for Sinner to play a garden-variety variety. Carlos doesn't merely do that, he doesn't just mix drop shots and slices in between, but also uses various speeds and spins and elevations of the forehand groundstroke for example (in one rally Carlos hits multiple kinds of forehands consecutively against Jannik. That prevents the Italian from getting rhythm and pulling the trigger. Increading the chance that Carlos pulls the trigger first.

 

But enough of Sinner. What about Atmane? That second set was amazing. I absolutely adore his serve — a textbook classic. Magnificient short toss then within a split-second BOOM. Smack that ball on the apex or on the rise!!! Not when it's going down. Straight outta 80s. Pioneered by the OG servebot Roscoe "cannonball" Tanner. The pre-Sampras era's GOAT as far as serve is concerned. It's the serve that prevented Borg from ever winning a US Open slam. Atmane obviously is still too green in terms of physique (body condition-wise he needs to improve, inorder to survive and thrive at the top. That's why he was useless in the third set.