(ANSA) – ROME, AUG 19 – Jannik Sinner retired sick while 5-0 down in the first set of the final of the Cincinnati Masters Monday night and his great rival Carlos Alcaraz won the tournament to close the gap at the top of the world rankings.
Sinner said his goal is now to be ready for the US Open which starts next Sunday and where he will be aiming to defend the title he won last year, Sinner also has two Aussie Opens as well as a Wimbledon trophy.
The pair have now met in four finals this year with Alcaraz winning in Rome, Paris and Cincinnati and Sinner winning at Wimbledon.
The Spaniard is now just under 2,000 points behind the South Tyrolean on the WTP rankings.
Sinner, who has just turned 24, did not says what exactly his ailment was but said he had been feeling ill since Sunday and it had got progressively worse on Monday, giving him the dilemma of whether to try to make a game of it.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed. I haven’t been feeling well since yesterday. Even during the night, I thought I’d recover a little better, but that wasn’t the case. I simply tried to get out there for the fans, but today wasn’t my day. It happens. I don’t want to take anything away from Carlos, who played a great tournament. Now the main focus is the US Open. The most important thing is to recover, and then we’ll see,” Sinner told the post-match press conference.
The world number one spoke about the discomfort that forced him to retire without going into too much detail but setting his next goal: the US Open.
He emphasized that “I think the Cincinnati week was very positive. Reaching the final of a Masters 1000 is always an extraordinary achievement. I feel like I’m having an incredible season.
“So, let’s keep going, let’s keep pushing, as I always say. This week was a good test to understand where I stand. My level is good, for sure, but at the same time, there’s still room for improvement.” Looking ahead to the US Open, Sinner added, “I’ve already identified some areas where I need to improve if I want to go far.” The main one, he emphasized, “is my serve. We’ll work a lot on that and on my first serve percentage. Obviously, I also need to recover physically.
“The goal is always to improve, to work on the whole thing to eliminate every small percentage of errors. That’s the goal, and I really hope to be ready.” (ANSA).
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Sinner said his goal is now to be ready for the US Open which starts next Sunday and where he will be aiming to defend the title he won last year, Sinner also has two Aussie Opens as well as a Wimbledon trophy.
The pair have now met in four finals this year with Alcaraz winning in Rome, Paris and Cincinnati and Sinner winning at Wimbledon.
The Spaniard is now just under 2,000 points behind the South Tyrolean on the WTP rankings.
Sinner, who has just turned 24, did not says what exactly his ailment was but said he had been feeling ill since Sunday and it had got progressively worse on Monday, giving him the dilemma of whether to try to make a game of it.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed. I haven’t been feeling well since yesterday. Even during the night, I thought I’d recover a little better, but that wasn’t the case. I simply tried to get out there for the fans, but today wasn’t my day. It happens. I don’t want to take anything away from Carlos, who played a great tournament. Now the main focus is the US Open. The most important thing is to recover, and then we’ll see,” Sinner told the post-match press conference.
The world number one spoke about the discomfort that forced him to retire without going into too much detail but setting his next goal: the US Open.
He emphasized that “I think the Cincinnati week was very positive. Reaching the final of a Masters 1000 is always an extraordinary achievement. I feel like I’m having an incredible season.
“So, let’s keep going, let’s keep pushing, as I always say. This week was a good test to understand where I stand. My level is good, for sure, but at the same time, there’s still room for improvement.” Looking ahead to the US Open, Sinner added, “I’ve already identified some areas where I need to improve if I want to go far.” The main one, he emphasized, “is my serve. We’ll work a lot on that and on my first serve percentage. Obviously, I also need to recover physically.
“The goal is always to improve, to work on the whole thing to eliminate every small percentage of errors. That’s the goal, and I really hope to be ready.” (ANSA).
Read article…
