Jannik Sinner takes Taylor Fritz’s top gear, and finds a higher one, in Turin rematch

When the end came, it came swiftly, in both sets, for Taylor Fritz at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Twice he served at 4-5 against Jannik Sinner. Twice he made one very bad mistake. In the first set, at 15-30, he got caught in no man’s land and couldn’t make it back to the net for a Sinner drop shot. In the second set, at 30-30, Fritz sent a routine backhand into the middle of the net. Both times Sinner took immediate advantage of those miscues by upping the velocity on his forehand, and forcing an error from Fritz’s racquet to finish the set.

That was essentially all that separated the Italian and the American in a 6-4, 6-4 win in the Ilie Nastase Group for Sinner that was (a) never really in doubt, and (b) more perilous than the scores made it appear. This was only their fourth meeting, but according to Sinner, there aren’t any secrets between the two.

“We got to know each other very well in a Grand Slam final,” he said of his similarly hard-fought straight-set win over Fritz at the US Open in September. “We knew exactly what to expect today. He was very aggressive, and I was prepared.”

Read More: 'Just don't care': Daniil Medvedev sinks Alex de Minaur at ATP Finals with 'block the noise' philosophy

You could see the fruits of that preparation right away on Tuesday, with Fritz serving in the second game of the match. At 30-15, Fritz belted a forehand that he must have believed would be hard even for Sinner to handle. But Sinner handled it with ease, sent it back with added pace, and won the point. Fritz looked stunned as he turned to his player box and shook his head. Sinner had reminded Fritz, in case he had forgotten, that he had an extra gear.

Just as in New York, the two matched serves, forehands, and backhands to almost equal effect. They stood in, swung hard, and only rarely changed things up with a finesse shot or a foray to net. Just as in New York, Sinner had the final answer more often than Fritz. His forehand drop shot was a little silkier. His ball striking was a little purer—Sinner made 18 unforced errors, Fritz 26. His second serve had a little more pop—he won 59 percent of points on his second serve, while Fritz won 38.

“I just tried to serve very well in the important moments, which I did,” Sinner said.

There was one moment in each set when the match could have swung away from Sinner. At 3-3 in the first, he went down a break point, but saved it with a bravely angled forehand that Fritz couldn’t return. In the second set, again at 3-3, Sinner went down 0-30 on his serve. Again he extricated himself with some brave play: He won one point with a forehand drop shot winner, and another with a brilliant backhand pass. After that pass, Sinner cupped his hand to his hear to ask for more noise from the Turin crowd, while Fritz raised his arms in tantrum-like frustration. What did he have to do to win a big point?

“I read a little bit where he was playing,” Sinner said in his customarily modest, matter-of-fact way. “I just tried to pass him somehow.”

“If he breaks me there, the momentum could change.”

In the end, the match was a microcosm of both men’s seasons.

Fritz has worked hard to move into the Top 10, and now nearly into the Top 5, and to go deeper at the biggest non-clay events. But whether it’s in the form of Novak Djokovic, who beat him at the Australian Open, or Sinner, who beat him at the US Open, he has bumped up against a ceiling in the end. With a 1-1 record this week, he still has a chance to crack it in Turin.

We can see now that Sinner won’t be easy to shatter. He’s at home, he’s 2-0, and he has been close to invincible on hard courts for 13 months now. As he showed against Fritz, Sinner can take his opponent’s top gear, and find a higher one.