Jannik Sinner is continuing his hard court season at the Cincinnati Open this week and is in dire need of a deep run.
It feels a little bit like a tale of two halves for Jannik Sinner in the last year.
After guiding Italy to their first Davis Cup win in 47 years and beating Novak Djokovic twice, Sinner continued to clamber up the ATP rankings.
Picking up his maiden major in Melbourne saw Sinner kick off the year incredibly, with titles in Rotterdam, Miami and Halle soon following.
However illness and injury have plagued the Italian and he limped out of Wimbledon in the quarter-finals despite taking Daniil Medvedev to five sets.
A bout of tonsillitis ruined Sinner’s chances of an Olympics debut, with the 22-year-old also having missed the Tokyo games.
Hobbling off against Andrey Rublev in Montreal, and now preparing for Cincinnati where he’s never reached beyond the third round, he’s still not looking 100% despite Sinner’s recent fitness update.
Jannik Sinner reveals the positive changes he’s made to his training
With the US Open on the horizon, Sinner is back in the Midwest hoping to pick up some more ATP points to keep him as world number one.
Speaking ahead of the tournament, he opened up to the Cincinnati press about two improvements he’s been looking to make in his training.
“Before, maybe I was doing four hours of practice a day with good quality, and the fifth hour was so-so. Now I can do five, six hours of quality.
“It means the mental side has improved, the physical side has improved. Hopefully, I can get back to this before the US Open because I always feel good on court when I practice a lot, and in my mind, I know that I can handle the practice sessions in a good way. This brings me confidence.”
With the Italian seeded sixth at the 2023 US Open, it’s clear how vast his improvement has been, with the 22-year-old having been seeded first at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year.
Can Jannik Sinner break his bad spell of form in Cincinnati?
Seeded eighth last year, Sinner fell in his opening match to Dusan Lajovic, who this year couldn’t make it through qualifying.
The Italian this year will enter as the top seed and faces new American sensation Alex Michelsen in his opener this year.
Another stern test will see his young opponent come in with no pressure and with Sinner having several questions to answer about both his form and fitness.
Rival Carlos Alcaraz has an incredibly challenging Cincinnati draw with a number of Masters 1000 winners to get through in virtually every round.
With Sinner defeated in the fourth round at the US Open last year by Alexander Zverev, he will come in this year as the top seed and will be looking to find his hard court form from Melbourne.
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Source: CNN
