Jannik Sinner says there won't be any special preparation for his first Grand Slam title defense as he just plans to approach the Australian Open "seriously" but also not get himself too stressed out.
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Prior to the 2024 season, the Italian tennis star had only one Slam semifinal but he also finished 2023 on a very high note and he was considered a legitimate contender to win it all at Melbourne Park. And exactly that happened after the 23-year-old put up a major run to lift his maiden Major title in Australia.
En route to winning this year's Australian Open, Sinner impressively ousted record 10-time champion Novak Djokovic and also stunningly came back from two sets down in the final to beat Daniil Medvedev.
Since then, the Italian won his second Slam at the US Open - landed his first ATP Finals title - reached the world No. 1 ranking - won a total of eight titles and concluded the season with a 69-6 record.
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After defeating Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-4 in the Turin final, Sinner was asked how he was planning to approach defending a Grand Slam trophy for the first time in his career.
"I mean, in the same way as I did this year: I mean, keeping calm, having my connection with my team, taking it seriously but also relaxed, in both ways. You need to have a good balance. Then we see how it goes. There are going to be many, many first times in our life. It doesn't matter if it's a Grand Slam or something else. You just have to be yourself as a player in this case and trying to understand if it works or not works," Sinner explained.
"This is then going to be a problem in Melbourne. I don't know how I am going to react, how I am going to play. For sure is that I'm going to prepare it in the best possible way. Like every tournament, we try to prepare it, and then we see. I always say tennis is unpredictable. You never know what can happen. So it's going to be all good if mentally you're in a good place."
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Sinner's surprising perspective: I didn't set goals, but...
After becoming a Slam winner and reaching the top position in the men's game, many would say that their goal was accomplished for the season was accomplished. But the 23-year-old offered a more complex answer, when asked if he "reached his goals," explaining that his target was rather to see what he was capable of doing and didn't have a specific list.
"It's tough to say. I mean, my goal was to understand what I can achieve this year. There was no specific goal of winning a Grand Slam or being No. 1 or whatever. It's going to be the same next year: whatever we can catch, we take, and the rest we learn. I think that was the mentality we approached this whole year, trying to raise my level in specific moments, which I've done throughout this year," Sinner said.
"I'm very happy about that because it's a very nice way to finish off an incredible season. A lot of wins, a lot of titles. I'm talking in the tennis court. It was something what I was... Yeah, I didn't put the goals and I cannot answer you what I achieved by putting the goals in the beginning of the year. I'm very happy, that's for sure."
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Besides the two Major wins and the ATP Finals victory, he also won the Masters tournaments in Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai while he also had triumphant runs at the ATP 500 events in Rotterdam and Halle.
Sinner honestly on if he still has something to work on
The 23-year-old may have dominated this season and won the most matches but he still believes that there are still areas in his game that can get better. He specifically mentioned his serve as he would like to make it more consistent.
"I actually believe there is still gap of improvement... There are still certain shots and points what I can make sometimes better, but are small details. The higher you play level-wise, the more details make the difference," Sinner noted.
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It should be mentioned that the Italian tennis star also won the Six Kings Slam exhibition last month and pocketed an all-time $6 million tournament prize money.
All in all, it was an outstanding season for the world No. 1 in terms of results. But the upcoming CAS ruling in his doping case remains an issue because it is still not clear if he would be handed a suspension.
