Sinner on De Minaur win: 'I'm glad I managed this level'

pAfter one month without competitive tennis, perhaps a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a surprised himself with the calibre of tennis he produced on Sunday night at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a./p

pThe No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings admitted to feeling some rust in the early stages of his opening match against debutant a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a, but it wasnrsquo;t long before he was near his blistering best. After trailing an early break, Sinner found his rhythm and wrapped up victory in 85 minutes to kick-start his quest for a maiden trophy at the prestigious season finale.nbsp;/p

pldquo;I'm glad that I managed to play this kind of level today,rdquo; said Sinner, whose last tour-level match was his Shanghai Masters triumph in October. ldquo;It's a great start for my side for this event, for this tournament, considering I haven't played an official match in four weeks./p

pldquo;Every match, it's very difficult to play against him. He's a great fighter. You have to earn every point you play. Every time we play, he changes a couple of things, so I have to be very aware. It's very difficult. We don't have to see only the result, but also how the match goes.rdquo;/p

p /div style="position: relative; display: block; max-width: 100%;"

div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"

iframe src="https://players.brightcove.net/6057277721001/8gZSNwgH_default/index.html?videoId=6364520102112" allowfullscreen="" allow="encrypted-media" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"/iframe

/div

/div

pSinner, who notched his Tour-leading 66th win of 2024 (alongside a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a), is bidding to become just the third player to win the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/australian-open/580/overview'Australian Open/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a in one season (Federer, Djokovic). With his win over De Minaur, the 23-year-old is level with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a - his next opponent - at the top of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ilie-nastase/n008/overview'Ilie Nastase/a Group./p

pldquo;He [Fritz] has improved a lot in the past one and a half, two years,rdquo; added Sinner, who leads Fritz 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. ldquo;Hersquo;s serving much better [and] hitting the ball very, very hard. He's a great competitor./p

pldquo;I have to be at my top if I want to win or if I want to get close. I practised with him at the beginning of the week. It was a very tough practice set. It's going to be tough, this I know. I know that I have to raise my level. Hopefully I can do that, then we see how it goes.rdquo;/p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p