Jannik Sinner’s Rome Final Called Boring, His Unbeatable Reputation Questioned: “He’s Not Playing Against Federers, Nadals, and Djokovics”

Philosopher and former mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, did not mince his words while giving his verdict on the Italian Open final. World No.1 Jannik Sinner, after a slow start, clinched a 6-4, 6-4 win against Casper Ruud, becoming the first Italian man since Adriano Panatta in 1976 to win the home tournament.

Many believe Sinner was able to win the five back-to-back titles because of the absence of his arch-rival Carlos Alcaraz, who is currently nursing an arm injury. Sinner, after completing the Sunshine Double, beat the Spaniard in the Monte Carlo final and went on to take home the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, to improve his winning streak in Masters 1000s to 34 matches (all-time record).

Sinner, however, is not unbeatable, according to Cacciari, who thinks the 24-year-old is only able to win titles one after the other because of a lack of competition and because he is not facing players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. The Serb, who shocked the tennis community with his five-set win over Sinner in the semifinal of this year’s Australian Open, suffered an opening-round exit in Rome.

Is Sinner unbeatable? Well, unbeatable because he’s not playing against Federers, Nadals, and Djokovics. It’s a slightly different competition than it was ten or fifteen years ago. His opponents aren’t bad, but the average level is certainly not what it was ten or fifteen years ago. Would he win or lose against Federers and Nadals at the top of their game? In my opinion, he’d lose.

Massimo Cacciari told Radio 1’s ‘Un giorno da pecora’

Cacciari thinks Sinner, who is “ten thousand times more intelligent” than his opponents, would be the first person to agree that the Big 3 were better than him.

I saw it [the Italian Open final]. Extremely boring. Sinner was brilliant, very focused. Sinner is truly the greatest of all time. I think, mentally, in terms of his ability to concentrate. I mean, he’s a great champion. But he’s no Federer, come on, he’s no Nadal, come on.

Massimo Cacciari added

Sinner became the second man, after Djokovic, to complete the Career Golden Masters. He is also the second man, after Nadal, to win the three Masters 1000s on clay in the same season.

Sam Querrey shuts down conspiracy theories about Jannik Sinner’s semifinal match

After Jannik Sinner comfortably won the first set versus Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals of the Italian Open, the Russian ace fought back to win the next. Earlier in the third set, Sinner appeared to take a medical timeout for cramps, which Medvedev did not like and also complained to the umpire.

With Sinner leading 4-2, the officials had to halt the match due to rain, and it was resumed the next day. Some from the tennis world felt the Rome officials suspended the match to give Sinner more time to recover, as the World No.1 also threw up during the match. But Sam Querrey is not of the same opinion. He said on the Nothing Major podcast:

For the people, just the conspiracy people out there, when the rain came and they called the match a lot of times what happens is that if rain is coming at 11 p.m., they will look at the forecast and if it shows more rain coming at midnight, 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., they will cancel the match because they don’t want to keep players there for three hours.

Next is the French Open, the main draw of which is scheduled to start on Saturday (May 24th). Sinner will be aiming to complete the Career Grand Slam.

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