By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday March 13, 2024
Indian Wells – How good has Jannik Sinner been playing since the 2024 season started? So good that American Tommy Paul learned a new way to describe it. He told reporters on Wednesday, after his 6-4, 6-3 win over Luca Nardi at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, that 22-year-old Sinner is “playing naked.”
“He's been playing awesome tennis,” Paul said. “My fitness trainer taught me a term that they use in Argentina. When somebody is playing unbelievable, it means, like, they say they're playing naked - and he's absolutely playing naked right now.
"He's playing awesome tennis.”
Paul, who will face Norway's Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals on Thursday at Indian Wells, also talked about the performance of 37-year-old Gael Monfils at Indian Wells, and the way that players aged 36 and older are still holding their own on tour.
“It's impressive. I'm 26. My feet hurt to walk on,” Paul said, adding: “I was talking about it this morning right before I went on, with Monfils, I didn't realize he was 37 years old, turning 38 this year. It's so impressive.
“Obviously shows how much they take care of their body. I mean, that's what we're trying to do. You know, we have to take care of our body. I think it's something that we've all invested in, getting physios that are full-time with us on the road. It's a huge help for us to extend our careers to that age.”
Last but not least, Paul gave his views on Luca Nardi’s shock upset of Novak Djokovic on Monday night.
“I think all of us kind of felt like after he dropped the first set, we were, like, ‘Okay, we've seen this a million times.’ We've seen Novak come back and win a million of those matches.
“That's kind of what I was thinking also. But Nardi was playing awesome tennis. I mean, I really, I love the kid's game a lot. I think he's going to be a really good player. He was ice cold out there. He didn't show any emotion, he didn't look nervous. I thought that says a lot about him. That's such a big moment for him, and he was absolutely ice cold.”