Everything new for Jannik Sinner. That was the motto in the semi-finals of the 31st TERRA WORTMANN OPEN. This is the first time the South Tyrolean has played as number one at an ATP tournament this week. For the first time, he played against Zhizhen Zhang from China. For the first time, he reached the semi-finals in Halle. And now he is in the final of Germany's biggest tennis tournament for the first time.
The 22-year-old is not fazed by any of this. That is obvious during the week of the tournament. Sinner stays focussed and doesn't let on when something makes him nervous. In the quarter-final against Jan-Lennard Struff, for example, he missed 16 out of 18 break points. Many people would have scolded him or chopped his racket. Not so the redhead from Sesto. He kept his focus.
The semi-final started evenly. Zhang played his powerful forehand game close to the baseline, Sinner parried variably and took the initiative whenever he could. The favourite had break point for the first time in the ninth game and after a hard cross backhand, Zhang was unable to get the ball over the net: 5:4. 39 minutes later, Sinner converted the second set point with an ace.
Set two seemed to be a copy of the first when the Chinese player once again found himself in a tight position at 4:4. But this time he held his service. A little later, the crowd was amazed: after a double fault by the number 1, the outsider suddenly had set point at 6:5. But Sinner fended it off with a cracking forehand. It went into a tie-break. There was initially confusion about Zhang's serve. The referee recognised a second serve. But Sinner gave his opponent two more. A gentleman. He then had the tie-break under control and converted the match point after 99 minutes.
By reaching the final, Sinner has achieved something historic in Halle. He is only the third player here to reach the final as the reigning number one. Before him, only serial winner Roger Federer and Daniil Medvedev have achieved this. The attribute for Zhizhen Zhang is also historic. He was the first Chinese player in the world's top 50 and the first Chinese player to reach the semi-finals of a grass court tournament. The man from Shanghai has missed out on the title as the first Chinese player to beat the number one for the time being.
In the last match of the tournament, Jannik Sinner will play Hubert Hurkacz, a very good friend, on Sunday. They played doubles together at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals. They are tied 2:2 in the direct singles comparison, but have never played against each other on grass. The only final of the four matches took place in Miami in 2021. The Pole won against the then still very young Italian. "It will be very, very difficult against Hubi tomorrow, he plays very well here," said Sinner. And referring to the friendship, he said with a grin: "Tomorrow we won't be friends for a while, but we'll be friends again after the last point."
