Sinner explains how ATP tennis is played on grass

Jannik Sinner debuted as number one with a win. This phrase may not seem surprising to us, but the truth is that the Italian not only faced one of the most dangerous opponents you will see in his debut on grass (Tallon Grickspur, against whom he had to come back from a 0:1 scoreline), but he did so with very little time to adapt, since his appearance at Roland Garros was over. Adding to this his first success in ATP Halle 2024the transalpine version offered interesting reflections on press conference on how the circuit is approaching the grass tour: what it’s focusing on to be effective, and why we’re seeing fewer and fewer serves and volleys at ATP level.

Impressions from a hard victory

“Yeah, it was a pretty tough match. When I play Tallon (Greekspoor), it’s always a very tough match. He served very well throughout the match and I was ahead in the first set tiebreaker but made a couple of mistakes.” He served very well there. The set here can be solved very quickly and in a short time, as you saw: mentally it can be hard, but I tried to stay focused and although I suffered in the second set, I did everything I could. to be there mentally: “In the third set I improved a little and that makes me very happy. Hopefully I can continue to play even better in the next round.”

Back to playing on the grass

“It’s never easy at first. The movements are different from movements on other surfaces. I just try to stay very aggressive on the first shot, even if I miss some. It was great to be back on the court and I’m glad I can do it.” play at this level, on this court. The atmosphere was great, it was a very good first round match.”

The incredible moment he used to break Grickspoor’s serve

“It all started with that successful comeback, I know I hit him with the frame a little bit. He opened me on the right side, I was trying to get him to play at least one more shot, and then I saw this after his ball touched the ball, it went in the wrong direction. It went very high, so I knew I had a slim chance of hitting it. I don’t know very well… I tried to cross because it was covering the parallel. .. it was in my favor, and since then the inertia of the party has changed in my favor.

About cutting, serving and volleying on the grass, which is seen less and less

“There are fewer serves, volleys and fewer cuts on all surfaces now because the game in general is a little faster, you don’t have as much time to hit a shot. On grass the first weeks are different: at Wimbledon you see a little more of this style of play. For my part, I’ve never used the slice or serve and volley too much, although I have to do it sometimes if I’ve had a little more time to get used to it on this surface. …of course everyone wants to prepare this type of tennis for Wimbledon. Maybe we’ll see a little more diversity there.