Breaking: Sinner Faces Struggles, Yet Soars at Shanghai Masters
Jannik Sinner continued his 2024 Shanghai Masters campaign by beating Tomas Martin Etcheverry in three sets to advance at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
Sinner’s journey in China started at the China Open in Beijing, where he played well enough to find himself in the final. It was a final against Carlos Alcaraz, and the Spaniard denied him the trophy in Beijing.
There wasn’t any time to mourn as the Italian quickly jumped on a flight to Shanghai. His first match was against Taro Daniel, who he beat in two sets, and in the third round, he played against Tomas Martin Etcheverry from Argentina.
The Argentinian player has a strong serve and enjoys an attacking style which can create lots of problems if he produces a strong level. He did that against the Italian, so Sinner had to dig deep to overcome that.
The match was also played under a roof as Shanghai has been dealing with rainy weather in recent days, giving organizers plenty of headaches. The first set of this match didn’t feature any breaks because both players were solid on their serve.
Etcheverry had the first break point in the match, which came at 3-3; however, Sinner saved it. The Italian got his first in the game after that but failed to use it. The next break points came when Sinner was up 6-5.
Those were set points, as the Italian held a 40-15 lead on Etcheverry’s serve, but the Argentine held superbly to force a tie-break. At that point, he had already been up to 8 aces, losing only 4 points behind his serve.
Etcheverry also had more winners than Sinner, which shows how good he was playing. Sinner then couldn’t keep up in the tie-break, losing it 3-7 against the super solid Etcheverry, who was not playing around. He played a superb set to win it.
After missing out on that opening set, Sinner understood that he needed to be much better, and he was playing the second set much better. He broke first quite early in the set but then also lost it immediately as he struggled to hit the ball as consistently as he needed.
Etcheverry was also playing robustly. Still, Sinner was too good to lose in straight sets, so he broke once more and won the second set 6-4. The World No. 1 player just took over in the second set, hitting 14 winners while making only six unforced errors.
It was a much better mark than in the opening set, and it made all the difference. Sinner kept applying heavy pressure and worked his way to three consecutive break chances at the start of the third set but failed to use them.
However, he was the much better player, creating break point chances in every game of the third set. He used two of those to win the match 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2, and reach the fourth round of the 2024 Shanghai masters.
After the win, the top seed admitted that he was aware that after losing the first set, he needed to step up, so that’s what he did.
“I felt like it was a tough set that I lost. I had chances… but you know, these things can happen. He played a very very great tiebreak. I had to accept it and restart from 0. It was a tough match physically and also mentally. I’m very happy that I’m through this one. Let’s see what’s coming.”
