Jannik Sinner he reached the final of the ‘China Open’ underway in Beijing. In the semi-final he defeated the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in two sets, with the score 7-6(7/4), 6-1. Thanks to this success Sinner will reach the fourth place In the ATP rankingequaling the best placing of an Italian tennis player, that of Adriano Panatta in 1976.
Pietrangeli: “Sinner is a heavyweight, he can beat my record”
“I predicted that at the end of the year he would finish in the top five, he did even better…”. Nicola Pietrangeli is sincerely happy with the world climb of Jannik Sinner, who with the victory against Alcaraz in Beijing became number 4 in the ATP ranking, equaling Adriano Panatta in the Open era. “And enough about this Open era, it’s not like I played basketball… – the former Italian champion, born in 1933, who was number 3 in the world in singles both in 1959 and 1960, says jokingly to Italpress, when the rankings were drawn up without computers – However, the number four suits Jannik right, given that in front of him is Medvedev, with whom he will play the final tomorrow, Djokovic and Alcaraz”. Not only that: the 22-year-old from South Tyrol has the means to rise further in the rankings. “In life you can always improve – underlines Pietrangeli, captain of the historic Davis national team that won in Chile and won twice at Roland Garros – Last year they said about his serve, now he beats like crazy and not just for the coach (Cahill, ed.), because if you’re not capable… He has the qualities to improve further, everything always seems to come easily to him.”
Certainly, Sinner doesn’t lack strength in his punches: “I always say that Jannik shouldn’t just be looked at, but felt. He throws harder punches than the others and this is tennis today, it’s as if there were only heavyweights in boxing “. A further leap in quality for Sinner would mean equaling or beating the record of a sporting legend like Pietrangeli: “Records are made to be broken. After that – he concludes – he can also become number one in the world, but let’s talk about it again when he has obtained my results …”.