Jannik Sinner becomes a tragic figure in Vienna

The sport of tennis can be fascinating and brutal at the same time. This was made clear to Jannik Sinner once again on Saturday afternoon in Vienna. In the semi-final duel against the American Frances Tiafoe (ATP 49), the Sexten native looked like the sure winner after just over an hour of play, led 6:3, 5:3 and was able to serve to win the match. But then the inexplicable happened.

Suddenly Sinner, who had been playing extremely well until then, completely lost the thread, became nervous, made mistakes, rebuilt his opponent who was already on the ground and thus lost a match that he had actually already won. In the end, crowd favorite Tiafoe won 3:6, 7:5, 6:2 and moves into the final, where he will meet Alexander Zverev on Sunday at 14 p.m.

Sinner congratulates Tiafoe on his victory. © APA/afp / VLADIMIR SIMICEK

For Sinner, however, it is one of the bitterest defeats he has suffered in his career. But it shows: the Pusterer is also only human, and at 20 years old, an extremely young one at that. In any case, the man from Sexten can console himself with a look at the world rankings: from Monday he will appear in position 9 and will therefore be in the top 10 for the first time. Sinner plays extremely well, but then... Nevertheless, Sinner will still have to nibble on this defeat - and ask himself the question: How could this come about? Against Tiafoe, who had to go through qualifying in Vienna and surprisingly reached the semi-finals, the youngster continued for an hour where he left off against Casper Ruud on Friday. Although he needed a few points to get the engine up to operating temperature, he then played his opponent against the wall with his outstanding forehand and the dreaded baseline shots. The result: In the fifth game, the 20-year-old got the break, moved ahead to 4:2 and closed the set to 6:3 with another break.

Here all was well with the world for Sinner. © ANSA / CHRISTIAN BRUNA

However, his best phase came at the beginning of the second set, in which he returned excellently and “Big Foe” took his breath away when he served. Because his own service also came from a single source, Sinner pulled away to 5:2 and finally served at 5:3 to win the match. At that point in time, no one in the Wiener Stadthalle probably thought that the South Tyrolean would let this thing go. Tiafoe also seemed at a loss: After an outstanding point from Sinner, he ran to a fan and leaned his head on his shoulder in disbelief. An impressive series is coming to an end It was precisely such actions that made the US boy popular with the audience. And so he was whipped forward by the fans when he took serve from Sinner and equalized from 3:5 to 5:5. The now visibly nervous Sinner then gave up the service again and suddenly Tiafoe was back in the game by winning the set to 7:5.

This also became clear in the third set: While the Puster player has now completely lost the thread and made numerous mistakes, his counterpart became stronger with every point. Thanks to a break, Tiafoe moved ahead to 3-1 and subsequently didn't let the young star get close. After 2.18 hours the sensation was perfect - and Sinner's impressive series ended: Most recently he won 11 games (and two tournaments) in a row at indoor tournaments. The 12th would have been within reach.

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Jannik Sinner becomes a tragic figure in Vienna

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