Jannik Sinner’s latest masterclass at the French Open has amazed Mats Wilander with the tennis great suggesting the Italian’s rivals might need to look at Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s playbooks for tips on how to beat him.
World No 1 Sinner has been in sensational form since returning from his ban as he finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the Italian Open and has followed it up with three clinical results at the clay-court Grand Slam.
His latest win, a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 17th seed Andrey Rublev, was sensational from start to finish as he hit 25 winners and didn’t give his opponent a sniff.
The result also helped him extend his Grand Slam winning streak to 18 matches.
There doesn’t appear to be too many holes in the Sinner game at the moment and seven-time major winner Wilander has highlighted why he is such a difficult opponent to face.
“Carlos Alcaraz is aggressive, but in a different way. Can you throw up one and sort of mix up the pace?” he asked on TNT Sports.
“I think that’s the only chance you have, is to mix up the pace once in a while, but it has to be hit at the right time, and it can’t be hit when you’re defending.
“It has to be hit when you are in charge of the rally, which happens very rarely, you can throw up something with a lot of top spin and you can potentially push Jannik back, and then you can take the next one, because hopefully there’ll be a short one.
“But really honestly, I don’t even know how you would play against Jannik Sinner.”
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Besides upping your own aggression, the Swede also feels rivals should ask themselves “what would Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal do?”
Wilander added: “I’m thinking, what would Roger Federer do? He would slice and dice and he would keep the ball low, and he would roll up a high one, maybe. What would Rafa do? Not sure. He would try to wear him out, I suppose, but he’s just playing unbelievably well.
“His movement, he’s flying around the court. I mean, it’s Spider-Man, to me. It’s just unbelievable how athletic he is.
“It starts with the serve these days. He’s changed it over the years and it’s much better. He’s returning brilliantly. He takes the ball so early. I’ve never seen a player that is as aggressive as him from the baseline.
“Players like John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg were more aggressive coming to the net, but in terms of aggressive baseliner, Jannik Sinner is definitely the most aggressive I’ve ever seen.”
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