Djokovic almost infallible, Sinner still rocking. Tennis lessons for casual observers

It was the game for everyone, the one that even the non-habitual visitors of the TV screens filled with a tennis court would have commented and told. Yes, we had already fallen for it in the previous match between Jannik Sinner And Novak Djokovic and, as rookies of tennis observation, we were thrilled by the two lead sets then taken by Sinner. He was always on the mottled grass of Wimbledon and our very thin champion started with a 7-5 in the first set and then 6-2 in the second. The occasional observers then began to study the day’s commitments on their mobile phones, answering a few messages, imagining getting the practice of the tennis match out of the way in a quick third set and then moving on to something else. Confident, almost bored faces, and the annoyance reserved for bores when faced with the calls for caution that came from the more expert spectators, from fans who had seen a little more than those who arrive fresh to follow the semi-finals of the slams and makes judgments.

Then it went as we know, with three sets in a row for the Serbian, who entered that kind of trance that catches him when he stops making mistakes and builds his tennis on risk minimization and full exploitation of chances with probability of success (and the movements of his right arm and his body go along with him in full). For casual observers, the match was an opportunity for maturation. Because they (we) had to understand that you can play better and give a greater impression of solidity by losing directly for three sets to zero instead of winning the first two and then giving up the next three.

Sinner has shown the ability to stay on the pitch against an almost infallible Djokovic, managing to build points with the strength of his game and not just by exploiting other people’s (very rare) mistakes. Then, unfortunately, he didn’t do it when he would have needed more. In the break points initials, conquered with great skill and with a linear game, shaped almost on a sort of imitation of the economy of his rival’s technique, and in the final tie break, we have all seen him make somewhat angry, hasty mistakes. Djokovic was in the trance of infallibility already from the walk in favor of the camera through the halls and corridors of Wimbledon, with that special ability to analyze and then forget his moments of weakness and the exaltation that protests and opposing support give him, seasoned by the audience buuuu. Sinner had arrived with the much-quoted bag, strong and light as usual, with a lanky step, under which he hides a strong will to win. This time, however, something in some corner of his head told him that it wasn’t time yet to beat the Serbian champion, but that his turn would come. “I think the score does not reflect the reality of what happened on the pitch”, Djokovic then conceded to the microphones on the pitch, rendering in a few words the awareness acquired even by occasional fans, now matured and ready to show off more competence and more concentration at the next match.