Jannik Sinner is surgical. He also beats Tomas Machac, the Czech number 33 in the world, executioner of Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals, and flies to the final of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, sealing the number 1 in the world until the end of the season.
The South Tyrolean won with a score of 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 44 minutes , at the end of a very hard-fought match in which the Czech showed he was in great shape. In the final act tomorrow he will face Djokovic, who in the other semifinal defeated the American Taylor Fritz by 6-4, 7-6.
Machac immediately surprises Sinner with his very fast and very anticipated forehand and immediately takes a break lead. The Italian reaches him at 2 all thanks to a perfect return game and they continue "on serve" until the tenth game, when Machac forces too much and with three errors concedes set points to the champion, who takes advantage, cashes in and takes home the first partial .
In the second set they move forward holding serves, Sinner cancels two champion break points at 4-4. Nice little scene in the tenth game, when Machac breaks his racket and laughingly tells Jannik «you're hitting too hard» . In the twelfth game, at 6-5 Sinner, the Italian returns to being surgical. He takes advantage of a couple of errors by the Czech to get to match point at 30-40, plays an extraordinary point, makes Machac run from one side of the court to the other and closes with a smash.
It will therefore be the final, the eighth of this amazing 2024 for the world number 1 (so far 6 wins and 1 loss, last week in Beijing against Alcaraz).
And with this result Jannik is mathematically certain to retain the world number 1 at the end of the year.
His words: « Closing as No. 1 was my childhood dream, but now I'm thinking about the final. Machac has a lot of talent, he produces fantastic and aggressive tennis. I lost my serve right away, then I tried to play every point and exchange as much as possible».
(Unioneonline/L)