By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, November 16, 2024
Photo credit: Valerio Pennicino/Getty
Turin is home turf for world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
Taylor Fritz says Inalpi Arena conditions are more conducive to his upset hopes than when he faced Sinner on his home soil at the US Open.
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The top-seeded Sinner and Fritz will square off in the ATP Finals title match tomorrow that's a rematch of the US Open final from two months ago.
Sinner won 38 of 43 first serve points sweeping Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in the US Open final.
Last week, Sinner scored his third straight win over Fritz, 6-4, 6-4, in ATP Finals round-robin play.
The fifth-seeded Fritz, who toppled world No. 2 Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) to become the first American man since James Blake in 2006 to reach the ATP Finals final, is playing to become the first American since Pete Sampras in 1999 to take the title.
"I think conditions are very different here as opposed to the Open," Fritz told the media in Turin. "One thing I said in the interview after I played him here already was just US Open felt like I was kind of just trying to keep myself in with my serve, stay alive, win points by hitting big shots or playing off of his errors. Kind of just like not repeatable, consistent ways to win points. I was just trying to, like, stay alive.
"The match we played here, I felt like I didn't feel like that. I felt very, like, much more comfortable from the baseline. I had my chances in that match. I had chances to break him in both sets. He had an equal amount of chances, and he took his. He played the big points better than I did in the group stage match."
The 2022 Indian Wells champion Fritz snapped Zverev's eight-match winning streak today and will try to break his own three-match losing slide against Sinner—and 13,000 Italian fans—tomorrow.
If Fritz is to pull of a major upset and beat Sinner for the first time since 2021 Indian Wells, he knows he must serve with authority.
"He's the best player in the world. He's playing with a lot of confidence," Fritz said of Sinner. "That's something that you have to expect from him, to play the big points really well.
"I've made a lot of improvements in my game. For me at the US Open, the biggest thing was, like, I just didn't honestly play great. I didn't serve great. If I don't serve well, it sets up the rest of my game for failure, I'd say."
The 23-year-old Sinner leads the ATP Tour in service games won this season (91.9%), while Fritz is fifth on Tour in that category holding 88.58% of the time.