Sinner returns to the final in Turin with a score to settle | Nitto ATP Finals

Jannik Sinner’s dream season finale is very close to becoming a reality. After winning his second Grand Slam at the US Open, the Italian set out to win his first Nitto ATP Finals, and the No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings is one win away from achieving it.

This Saturday he advanced to the final thanks to beating the Norwegian Casper Ruud with sets of 6-1, 6-2 in the second semifinal of the day, thus giving himself the opportunity to win his eighth title of 2024. The American awaits him on Sunday Taylor Fritz.

The 17-time ATP Tour champion has qualified for the championship match with a 4-0 record this week, just as he did twelve months ago in this event in Turin. This time he will try to make the outcome different from the 2023 edition, in which he ended up falling in the final with Novak Djokovic, his victim a couple of days before in the group stage.

Now he will also face a player whom he beat in the round-robin. But this time he has almost absolute favoritism aside to triumph again over Fritz, against whom he has a positive record (now 3-1) since he beat him a few weeks ago in the definition of the US Open.

”It is a very similar situation to last year. I’ll just try to play the best I can,” Sinner said. “From last year until now I feel like I have more experience and I’ve grown as a player. “I hope it is a good day after a very positive week and year.”

The biggest argument is his tennis. The 23-year-old right-hander came into this duel without losing sets, and on Saturday he extended the trend against an opponent who came into this duel with a 1-1 record in the semifinals of the Nitto ATP Finals, but whom he knew how to control from start to finish. .

He saved the two break points he faced, and broke four times to seal his ninth qualification to an ATP Tour final, and to leave his Lexus ATP HeadToHead at 3-0 with Ruud, whom he had already beaten in Vienna in 2020 and 2021 .

He needed just over 70 minutes to return to the final in Turin and be one step away from one of the titles he has most desired in his career.

“I feel like I was returning well in the first games of each set and then when I was leading by a break, I tried to be very focused with the service games,” Sinner said. “I tried to be intense with each shot and I’m very happy with the performance and with being in the final again.”