Jannik Sinner is an altogether different player from the one who left the All England Club on Friday 14 July, 2023. When the Italian made his exit from Wimbledon after a straight-sets defeat by seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, he was the world No 8 and a grand slam semi-finalist. Fifty weeks on, he entered SW19 as the world No 1, a grand slam winner, and the betting favourite to lift the gentlemen’s singles trophy.
In his Wimbledon campaign last year, there were plenty of positives for the 22-year-old: He had reached the final four of a major for the first time, and there was no shame in losing to a king of Centre Court, no less with a display of great promise – despite the straight-sets scoreline. But where last year there was promise, this year there is pressure.
Such are expectations midway through the most successful year of Sinner’s career. January brought his first slam, as he showed steep progress with a banishing of Djokovic in the semi-finals. If the Serb is a king of Centre Court, he is a deity Down Under, yet Sinner was a non-believer that day. But a final against Daniil Medvedev required enormous reserves of belief, and Sinner plundered them to fight back from two sets down, claiming the trophy.
The world No 1 tried to play with positivity, unwinding his long levers for aggressive forehands, but there were early inconsistencies. When things were working, Sinner was puppeteering Hanfmann with groundstrokes, but the 22-year-old’s movement was interrogated here, as the German kept his forehands low and frequently drew Sinner to the net.
