[R]

If Sinner wants to be greater, he needs proper strength training and conditioning overall @Muzzafan. There is no other way. Prime Murray would wear him down with no problem (more often than not). Murray just happened to play in a much stronger era against three freaks (also freaks fitness-wise). Alcaraz's fitness is big 4 level. Sinner gotta catch up.

Your guy was winning slams looking like Trevor Reznik

 

[Nole Rules]

Your guy was winning slams looking like Trevor Reznik

Djokovic had a much thicker/stronger lower body than Sinner, though. I think he had a stronger core overall. That can help prevent injuries and absorb/handle some of the damage/impact that comes from all that sliding, don't you think? Sinner matches his flexibility but not overall body strength and durability yet I think. Big 4 had very strong bases. But Sinner you see him limp often after very long rallies with Alcaraz. His hip is already having issues at this age. Maybe too much pressure on his joints and lack of muscle doesn't help.

Upper body wise, maybe Sinner has enough muscle, but he needs to be very fit enough to minimize potential elbow and shoulder issues. Can he serve as hard as Alcaraz consistently without any drop in pace? His serving pace dropped in the USO final or SF. It could be due to an ab injury, but doesn't that suggest some lack of conditioning to some level if true?

 

[Nole Rules]

I don't know about this take. Dude had a fine season and even against Alcaraz apart from USO which was seemingly a result of Team Alcaraz doing their homework after Wimbledon. Next time we'll see what Team Sinner have potentially been working on. They are presumably in the lab as we speak, just like Team Alcaraz were after Wimbledon. You don't need any extra breaks but can use these regular breaks. And it would be a weird move particularly now also for the reason that this is traditionally a good part of the season for Sinner. Finished off last year winning Shanghai, Six Kings, Tour Finals and the Davis Cup B2B2B2B. After that you can then continue your development and tweaks also during the normal off-season.

This is a fair take. I'm curious to see what Team Sinner does because if these nagging injuries keep happening, then this suggests some lack of conditioning to some extent. It's not just bad luck (although bad luck happens, of course). I also wonder if he can serve very hard consistently without any shoulder issues, because he might need to do that against Alcaraz, who is the best on tour at returning first serves. The other option is to be a proper and reliable spot server like Djokovic or Federer without needing to rely on that much pace.

 

[FilipoSVK]

This is a fair take. I'm curious to see what Team Sinner does because if these nagging injuries keep happening, then this suggests some lack of conditioning to some extent. It's not just bad luck (although bad luck happens, of course). I also wonder if he can serve very hard consistently without any shoulder issues, because he might need to do that against Alcaraz, who is the best on tour at returning first serves. The other option is to be a proper and reliable spot server like Djokovic or Federer without needing to rely on that much pace.

He was able to do that in 2024 and at AO as well to some extent. It all went downhill after the suspension I believe. Lack of matches and active playing took its toll on him.

 

[Nole Rules]

I think his problem is being injury-prone, rather than match endurance. He falls and suddenly he has a niggling pain somewhere which affects his tournament-winning prospects.

He's certainly less prone to injury than 2-3 years ago so hopefully he keeps building himself up.

Agreed. He improved a lot for sure and probably can improve further. He clearly had some physical issues in the USO, which probably affected his serve. My argument is that in order to lower the frequency of these nagging injuries, more conditioning is perhaps worth considering. At some point, bad luck becomes a lack of preparation. My suggestion here is obviously too radical, and he probably can't skip Turin for some BS reason just to train more, but it would serve him to invest more in conditioning to reduce injury chances in the future. The issue with the tennis season is that there isn't enough space to focus more on conditioning and recovery time. So they have to work around that to improve fitness-wise.

 

[Nole Rules]

He was able to do that in 2024 and at AO as well to some extent. It all went downhill after the suspension I believe. Lack of matches and active playing took its toll on him.

Seems like suspension is the only explanation for the serve issues at this point but even that explanation is kind of strange since his ground game was unaffected. Maybe he does have a new chronic injury he doesn't want to talk about that only affects the serve...

 

[Never A Question]

I wouldn't have minded him skipping Beijing. But I guess you might as well play more than one event if you're going to fly to China.

 

[Nole Rules]

If Sinner has Zverev's body strength (or even close to it), I have no doubt Sinner would be serving bombs consistently. Z has diabetes, but still worked hard to gain muscle and elite strength (shame that doesn't translate to his game apart from the serve, however). I still think Sinner can benefit from more strength training and conditioning.

Sascha worked very hard to be this good.

 

[ballbashingmug]

Sinner missed 5 masters this year.

He had a slight level drop and played a Goating Alcaraz. He can play a few more tournaments.