Sinner is not Alcaraz (or Rune). But don’t consider it boiled

Sinner in English means sinner. And therefore, in short, it won’t upset at all if his defeat against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open is considered a great sin. Having arrived so close to contending for access to the quarterfinals against the future new number one in the world, the South Tyrolean stopped at the best moment. After recovering from a two set deficit, he split in the fifth. And also thanks to a stellar first serve percentage of his opponent, he suddenly left the court. “I missed a few shots, not the picks”, he regretted at the end of the match, when he had already walked with his eyes down, bag over his shoulder, the visor of his cap lowered over his auburn strands, the long corridor towards the locker room that the players are forced to cross with joy or the lump in the throat. In his case, the latter prevailed, as it always happens when he faces the top five in the world in a Grand Slam tournament. Except that while last year against Tsitsipas he seemed like a junior player, at least three-four categories lower, yesterday in the third and fourth set, although he had the best version of the Greek on the other side of the net, he played even. Indeed, he had even been preferred for variety of game, promptness in returning, solidity in serving, and in that innumerable series of hits scored so as to break the opponent’s legs and breath and rhythm.

The fifth set started with the best auspices but in the first point Sinner reversed the flow of energy and the course of events, pitting one smash easy easy after a lob miraculous backhand recovery. It was understood that once granted the break there would be nothing more to hope for. And the 21-year-old Italian is right to be sorry “for having messed up”, which quickly changed the momentum in the game. But from here to accuse him of being an inconsistent player, he takes the longest step. At the same time, those who write that “this defeat is a victory” are wrong, because it is Sinner himself who understands how a fundamental piece missing from his tennis is the ability to win in these challenges “too close to call”. When attention to detail gets you through to the next round, an extra centimeter of depth or a ball that’s a little too short, one less leap of conviction.

At Wimbledon last year, after beating Alcaraz, he played two and a half interstellar sets against Djokovic, but lost. At the US Open he had match points against the then winner and world number Spanish, but succumbed. Today he is reproached for not having at least equaled last year’s quarterfinals, but anyone who does not see his growth path is simply in bad faith. Sinner is not Alcaraz, and neither is it Holger rune, the 19-year-old Dane destined to quickly break expectations and hierarchies of the racket. Two references that are anything but accidental because both exploited us by beating Tsitsipas in a majorswhich Sinner has never been able to do.

When last February he decided to abandon the historic collaboration with the anti-statist Riccardo Piatti, the Italian’s goal was to become competitive in the most important tournaments, challenging the strongest players in the ranking. Because starting with the advantage of the predictions has never been a problem for him: he has won 27 out of 28 matches against players with a lower ranking in the frame of the slams. It is true that since then the sensation of “player-building site” has never completely abandoned him. Yet if there has been one answer in the last year, well this has been the progressive will to try to be something else than just himself. He won’t be remembered as the Holden Caulfield of tennis, with that crippling fear of growing up. But not even Giovanni Papini’s Finished Man (“I’ve never been a child, I never had a childhood”), because he didn’t become great all of a sudden, without any yardstick. The red boy’s Bildungsroman is still to be written. Contains a large number of pages, there are no plot twists. Yet he could satisfy everyone a bit: even the tastes of those who now accuse him, at 21 years old and after six consecutive qualifications for the round of 16 of a slam, of already being boiled in the pot of expectations without confirmation. Calm.