Sinner says head to head record with Ruud helped him hit rare heights in Rome quarter-final win
The Italian blasted his way to a 6-0, 6-1 victory in just 64 minutes
Inside / Psnewz
Jannik Sinner would never say it in quite so many words, but when the Italian stepped on to court to face Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters on Thursday, he probably had a good idea that he would play well.
Maybe not quite as well as he did – the world No 1’s 6-0, 6-1 drubbing of the Norwegian was as good a performance as you will see all year – but having won all three of their previous battles, all in straight sets, he knew that his game matches up favourably with Ruud.
“Everyone of us have these one or two opponents where we struggle a little bit more,” Sinner said on court, referring to the 3-0 record, the most recent of them being a 6-1, 6-2 thumping at the ATP Tour Finals late last year. “I tried to replicate what I’ve done in the past”.
I had the tactics prepared
In his first event after a three-month doping ban, Sinner hit rare heights against Ruud, dropping four points in the first five games.
Sinner said playing in the cooler evening conditions had also helped him, with Ruud unable to get as much topspin as he would have done in the day, the ball therefore sitting that little lower, allowing Sinner to attack from almost anywhere on the court.
“It was an amazing match today from my side,” said Sinner, who will play Tommy Paul in the semi-finals. “Everything worked very, very well. From the back of the court I felt very comfortable today. I had the tactics prepared, and I tried to replicate that as in the last time we played against in Turin. We prepared that match in a very similar style.”
“Things can change, though, quickly. I had couple of points to go 3-0, but then was 2-1. If I have a small drop there, he breaks me there, it’s a game-changer. But I’m happy that I handled that in a very calm way.”
“We had a lot of doubts”
And Sinner said he had surprised himself by how well he has played so far in Rome.
“We had a lot of doubts of how my performance is going to be because in practice sessions I had many ups and downs,” he said. “You don’t have the feedback of the real match.
“I just came here. I’m very present person. If things goes well, I’m positive. If things don’t go well, I’ll work on that. Like after the match against Jesper (de Jong, in an earlier round), I stayed on court because I felt like something didn’t work as I wished to. There are no secrets. Just hard work and believing in myself. That’s really it. There is nothing else.”
