By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, November 16, 2024
Photo: Valerio Pennicino/Getty
Turin is the home ground for the world number 1 Jannik the Sinner.
Taylor Fritz says the Inalpi Arena conditions are more conducive to his upset hopes than when he faced Sinner on his home soil at the US Open.
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Sinner and Fritz will first meet in the ATP Finals title match tomorrow, which is a repeat of the US Open final two months ago.
SInner won 38 of 43 first-serve points to defeat Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in the US Open final.
Last week, Sinner recorded his third straight victory over Fritz, 6-4, 6-4, in the ATP Finals round robin.
Fifth Fritz, who knocked out world no.2 Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) to become the first American since James Blake in 2006 to reach the ATP Finals, is playing to become the first American since Pete Sampras in 1999 to take the title.
“I think the conditions are very different here compared to the Open,” Fritz told media in Turin. “One thing I said in the interview after playing him here already was that the US Open felt like I was just trying to hold myself on my serve, stay alive, win points by hitting big shots or playing off his mistakes. As a non-repeatable, consistent way to earn points, I was just trying to stay alive.
“The match we played here, I felt like I didn’t feel like that. I felt a lot, like, a lot more comfortable from the baseline. I had my chances in that match. I had chances to break him in both sets. He had an equal amount of chances and he got his points better than me in the group stage match.“
2022 Indian Wells champion Fritz snapped Zverev’s eight-match winning streak today and will look to snap his three-match losing skid against Sinner – and 13,000 Italian fans – tomorrow.
If Fritz is to pull off a major upset and beat Sinner for the first time since 2021 Indian Wells, he knows he must serve with authority.
“He’s the best player in the world. He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Fritz said of Sinner. “That’s something you have to expect from him, to play the big points really well.
“I’ve made a lot of improvements in my game. For me at the US Open, the biggest thing was, like, honestly, I didn’t play well. I didn’t serve well. If I don’t serve well, I’d say I put the rest of my game down to failure.”
The 23-year-old Sinner leads the ATP Tour in service games won this season (91.9%), while Fritz is fifth on Tour in that category holding 88.58% of the time.
