Jannik Sinner took “a straight punch to my face” from Tommy Paul, then punched his ticket to the Rome final

“That was a straight punch to my face,” Jannik Sinner of what Tommy Paul did when he broke him in his opening service game on Friday.

Sinner came into their semifinal in Rome leading with his chin. He had routed Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1 the previous day, and the sold-out crowd in Campo Centrale must have been expecting something similar from their world-conquering hero.

Instead, it was Paul who leapt out to a 5-0 lead, and sent the fans into a stunned silence. It was Paul who made 81 percent of his first serves, who returned even better, and who kept the pressure on Sinner with his hard, low-bouncing two-handed backhands, which forced the lanky Italian to hit from lower than he likes. Sinner finished the first set with two winners and 13 errors.

Yet in the final game of that set, Sinner managed to stagger back to his feet. He avoided a bagel by holding serve; that didn’t change much in the scoreline, but it turned out to be crucial for Sinner’s stability.

“I just tried to stay there mentally,” he said. “I stayed there in the first set, and winning this one game was very, very important.”

The turnaround officially began on the first point of the second set. Sinner and Paul engaged in a long rally, the kind that Paul had been winning up to then. This time, it was Sinner who stayed steady, and Paul who blinked, sending a forehand over the baseline. The crowd let out a pent-up roar, Sinner fist-pumped, and he was off to the races.

In the next game, Sinner started with an inside-out forehand winner, and broke with a backhand that wrong-footed Paul. Serving at 2-0, he saved two break points with two aces. At 4-0, he held at love, and with Paul saving at 0-5, Sinner closed the set with another wrong-foot backhand winner.

All was right in Rome again.

“It was much colder today, the ball was a bit heavier, I struggled with that,” Sinner said. “I tried to understand what might work a little bit better.”

The Sinner express kept rolling through the first two games of the third. He started with a love hold, then broke on a Paul double fault. But at 2-0, things almost came to a screeching halt. While he was still moving well, he began to grab at his right hamstring. Two games later, his movement had slowed, he had stopped attacking so relentlessly, and he was broken.

There’s going to be a lot of energy, I’m 100 percent not concerned. Jannik Sinner, on his blister, heading into the Rome final

From then on, it was a manner of Sinner managing his way to the finish line. He moved back, he rallied, he played good defense, he gritted his teeth, and he made a crucial reflex backhand down the line to steal a point, and a match-deciding break, from Paul for 4-2.

All’s well that ends well in Roma, right? Maybe not. Even as he was gutting out his final hold, Sinner was moving gingerly on his right leg. The problem, he said, began with a blister he developed earlier in the week.

“Since the third round I had a blister, and it’s connected,” he said of his hamstring pain. “Just a bit tight, it’s normal.”

Sinner tried to deflect any worry about how fit he’ll be for his much-anticipated final with Carlos Alcaraz.

“I have to take care of this blister,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of energy, I’m 100 percent not concerned.”

The tennis world will try not to be, either.