By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Jannik Sinner proved why he is still the no. 1 ranked male tennis player after sweeping Novak Djokovic- 7.6, 6.3- to capture the Shanghai Masters championship title held at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in China.
What everybody expected to become a dogfight turned out to be a lopsided affair as Sinner just manhandled Djokovic, capping off his stint in China with a stellar 2-0 sweep in the grand finals stage.
However, Sinner had to endure the court mastery that Djokovic had in the opening frame when he started playing chess which frustrated the Italian ace.
Known to have a big killer forehand, Sinner lost it when the more experienced Djokovic targeted his backhand as much as possible to prolong the baseline rallies.
With the strategy working effectively for Djokovic, Sinner made it up with his huge service game that saved him a lot of points when the Serbian attempted a break.
Sinner’s powerful first serves steered him to a deciding tiebreaker stage where he finally regained his forehand stroke in the most crucial stretch of the opening set.
The youngster escaped Djokovic in the tiebreaker, 7-4, and carried a huge boost entering the second and final set of the game.
Sinner staged a remarkable one-sided performance in the second period highlighted by the single break point tallied in the game that widened his gap to two points.
Without any remedy for stopping the smoking hot Sinner, Djokovic could just watch him produce points in weird angles and take care of business with the final service possession.
It was an incredible campaign for Sinner in Shanghai as he only dropped a single set in the entire tournament during the Round of 32 against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
After the 2-1 victory that helped him advance to the Round of 16, Sinner swept all of his games until the grand finals, defeating the likes of Djokovic, Ben Shelton, and Tomas Machac in dominant fashion.
