Cincinnati Open: Sinner seals title clash with Tiafoe, defeats Zverev

Cincinnati [US], August 19 (ANI): World number one tennis star Jannik Sinner marched into the final of the Cincinnati Open, defeating Alexander Zverev in a hard-fought semifinal on Sunday.

Despite some limping and the player favouring his hip, which has plagued him as of late, Sinner produced some stunning shots to beat the 2021 champion 7-6(9), 5-7, 7-6(4) in three hours and seven minutes.

“Sometimes you have to play a bit with the gut feeling. And I think this today was, my strength,” Sinner said in his on-court interview as quoted by ATP.

“There were some up and downs, which can happen, especially when you play for more than three hours. It was a good match, I think for both of us. He served very, very well, so I can be very proud,” he added.

Sinner lost the second set and showed some discomfort in his hip and it seemed that Zverev was in a fine position to secure a win. But instead, the world’s number one tennis player produced some incredible shots and narrowed his head-to-head deficit against Zverev to 2-4.

“It means a lot to me. It is a very different moment, what I am going through, so I am very happy about this result. The physical aspect, of course, I have to improve, because if I want to win Grand Slams or a bigger title, I have to be, for sure, more in shape. But I just tried to stay there mentally, which I am very proud of, and let us see what’s coming tomorrow,” said Sinner.

Sinner will be in action against Frances Tiafoe in the title clash, with the latter sealing his first ATP Masters 1000 final on Sunday by beating Holger Rune 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4).

“Crazy, crazy. That last set was nuts. It got pretty breezy there at the end so we were kind of just playing the percentages. But yeah, I got really lucky there. I had a couple of net cords, but I also battled. I competed really hard and put myself in position,” said Tiafoe after his game.

After his win, Tiafoe reached the number 20 spot in the ATP Rankings. For the first time since February 1997, there will be five Americans in the top 20 when the rankings are released, with Taylor Fritz, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton being among other Americans.