There are defeats in sport that leave deep injuries. Difficult to heal, even in the most extraordinary careers. That of a month ago, suffered by Jannik Sinner in the final on the Roland Garros central against Alcaraz, with three consecutive matches in the third set not exploited, the threshold of paradise one step away, except for finding himself in hell three hours later, is one of those. He leaves traces not only in the body (5 and a half hours of battle with epilogue to the Super-Tiebreak of the fifth), but also in the mind.
In the awareness that you have of yourself, that you built yourself game after game, victory after Vittoria, a business after business. AND It unleashes ghosts when you find yourself in front of that opponent who, in a certain circumstance, folded you denying you the Olympus just as the doors of an imperishable and solemn dimension appeared to you already wide open.
Who knows if those ghosts are hovering in Jannik’s mind, who has always seemed a Martian in terms of psychological force on the field.
A few hours after a challenge that is worth what or more of Roland Garros, the Wimbledon final, the most prestigious tournament in the world in the most extraordinary tennis place in the world, where – to tell one – aspiring members are subjected to “social magnetic resonances” that find no comparison in any other club on the planet. So there is risen, as well as it was predictable. Jannik against Carlos on the sacred grass of the Center Court.
The two numbers one of the world tennis who made the void, because there is no “top ten” that somehow can undermine them. And it will be another battle, which Sinner will be able to play on par only if in the hours preceding the meeting he will be able to close every gap to the … ghosts. And it is the aspect on which the two coaches will have to work in this juncture Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill.
On a technical level it will be a game in the mirror, while believing that Carlitos can leverage more cards: second faster and more incisive service ball, greater ability to vary the rhythm, the option of the descent to the net. Jannik will have to keep the rhythm high, as he did for two and a half hours in Paris. Each match has its own story, it will still be an epic challenge and others will follow. There is an Italian on the field, and we weren’t used to this. One more reason to enjoy it.