“We’re working on new things,” Jannik Sinner says after Beijing triumph

Sometimes, tennis commentators like to tell us, you just have to tip your cap and say, “Too good.”

In reality, of course, that’s not always the first thing that runs through a player’s mind when his opponent rips a crazy or clutch winner past him. And it may not have been what Learner Tien was thinking during his 6-2, 6-2 loss to Jannik Sinner in the Beijing final on Wednesday. But tipping his baseball cap to the Italian would have been appropriate. Because Sinner was too good.

More important, when Tien pushed him, he was even better.

Read more: Jannik Sinner powers past Learner Tien to win Beijing title for second time in last three years

After a one-sided first set, Tien began his pushback at the start of the second. He opened with a love hold, then reached break point on Sinner’s serve at 1-0. The American was winning rallies by moving Sinner from corner to corner. So what did Sinner do? He stopped getting into rallies. At break point, he hit one of his biggest serves of the day down the T, and followed it with one of his biggest forehands of the day to close out the point. Then he cracked a service winner and an ace to hold. Micro-crisis averted.

Sinner went up a break at 3-2, but again Tien pushed back. He went out of his normal, steady comfort zone and uncorked a couple of inside-out forehands to reach another break point. What did Sinner do? The same as last time. He made a big first serve, fired off a forehand, and finished with a smash. Then he followed with an ace and a service winner to hold. Micro-crisis No. 2 averted.

From there, Sinner ran out the match for his third title of 2025, in 72 minutes. In doing so, he proved that he can still win something other than a Grand Slam title. His other two came this year at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In his defense, Sinner has only played eight events this season, and has lost in the finals of four of them to Carlos Alcaraz.

After the last of those defeats, at the US Open, Sinner pledged to vary his game more, to take a page from Alcaraz and work on his finesse, his drop shots, his spins and angles. He reiterated that intention in Beijing.

“We’ve been reflecting a lot [on the US Open] final,” Sinner said. “We are working on new things. We are changing a lot of small things where I’m thinking of now. The amount of mistakes at the moment is for sure a little bit higher, but I hope that this recovers in a very positive way, no?”

Judging from this final, Sinner’s new variety will be a long-term project. He did make one early attempt at a forehand drop shot, but Tien hustled forward and quickly dismissed it with a backhand winner. Otherwise, this was first-strike, hard-court tennis from Sinner, and why not? Tien is consistent, so Sinner’s best bet was to beat him with pace, and that’s what he did.

Sinner hit 10 aces and 24 winners. Most impressive, perhaps, was an attacking play he made early in the second set. He took a backhand from behind the baseline, threaded it down the line, followed it to net, and finished with a jumping smash. That kind of ultra-athletic, ultra-aggressive transition game also qualifies as a page out of Alcaraz’s book. Sinner is capable of doing more of it.

“It’s just a question of time,” Sinner says. “Let’s see how long I take. I don’t know how much I’m able to do it on actual match court because one thing is practice and one thing is match. Let’s see.”

Tien was second-best on Wednesday, but this was a result that may get him some overdue attention. It was his first final, and he reeled off a series of quality wins, over Francisco Cerundolo, Flavio Cobolli, Lorenzo Musetti, and Daniil Medvedev, to get there. Tien now has five Top 10 victories in 2025. Only Alcaraz and Sinner have more.

Last fall, Tien lost to Joao Fonseca in the title match at the Next Gen Finals. The two teens went on to create a stir at the Australian Open, and to crack the Top 50. Fonseca’s flashy offense and festive Brazilian fans made him a phenomenon at the start of the year. But Tien’s thoughtful counterpunching has proven just as effective. With this win, he moves ahead of Fonseca in the rankings—No. 36 to No. 42—and continues his quiet case to be the ATP’s Newcomer of the Year.

“Thanks for working with me,” Sinner told his team as he held the Beijing trophy, “and we’ll try to improve and push for more, and let’s see what the rest of the season looks like.”

From here, Sinner will move on to the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, where he’s the defending champ. Alcaraz won’t be there, but Sinner will keep chasing him. The Italian, now No. 2 behind the Spaniard, is the hunter, rather than the hunted, again.

So far, the switch seems to suit him. All his opponents could say in Beijing was, “Too good.”