Jannik Sinner ‘hits a faster ball than Novak’ Djokovic claims Casper Ruud
Jannik Sinner has continued his impressive 2024 season by reaching the final of the ATP Finals once again, with his beaten semi-final opponent Casper Ruud drawing in on comparisons to Novak Djokovic.
Sinner enjoyed a comfortable, 6-1 6-2, win over Ruud last night to reach the final in Turin for a second successive season.
Despite winning only three games, Ruud was full of compliments for his opponent, “Jannik Sinner is playing extremely well from every corner of his game, if I can say that. Serving well, returning well. Every kind of groundstroke feels like rockets are thrown at you. That’s tough.”
The Norwegian continued, “I found that he was playing great offensive and also great defensively. Felt like he was moving better than sometimes you might expect from him because he’s a quite tall guy. He’s strong because he plays long matches and has no problem. When you look at him, he doesn’t necessarily look like a body builder, you know? But I think he also knows himself.
“He’s really fast on the court. He can get too many balls… I felt like even some points I was throwing him from side to side, he was defending and sliding around really well. I was really impressed with everything from his game.”
23,92 – Since the Australian Open switched to hard court in 1988, Jannik Sinner (23 years and 92 days) is the youngest player to reach the final at the Australian Open, US Open and ATP Finals in the same season. Machine. #NittoATPFinals | @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/Njs0ucxg3o
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) November 16, 2024
Throughout Sinner’s rise to the top of the game and the ATP rankings as World No.1, the Italian has had lots of comparisons to 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic.
Ruud has competed against both Sinner and Djokovic on multiple occasions, and suggested that the former hits harder.
“I don’t think you can compare that with Djokovic’s game. They play different tennis,” claimed Ruud. “On TV it looks probably similar but Jannik hits a faster ball than Novak. He doesn’t let you breathe. With Novak, you can play rallies. Not going to say it’s easier to play Novak because he’s the best in the history. But at least with Novak you can play rallies and not be terrified of Novak ripping, like, a bomb down the line or cross-court or these things.
“I don’t necessarily like to compare players because everyone has their own style. For me, you don’t realize how fast Jannik plays unless you watch him play live and you’re there in the stadium. On the TV, the speed is not fair.”
Ruud added, “I got to practice with him [Sinner] here earlier leading up to the tournament. He also kicked my ass there. In a way, I knew what I was facing today. Sometimes you feel like players might play even better in practice because they play with no pressure and such things. But today he played really well from the beginning until the end.”
Sinner will look to become the first Italian in history to win the ATP Finals singles title later today, when he takes on Taylor Fritz in a rematch of the US Open final.
Here’s how the #NittoATPFinals finalists stack up against each other 👀 @janniksin @Taylor_Fritz97 pic.twitter.com/O8LiUoRVdE
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 17, 2024
Inside the baseline…
Jannik Sinner has looked almost unstoppable at the ATP Finals this year, continuing on from his fantastic and dominant 2024 season – particularly on hard courts. It is interesting that Casper Ruud has almost gone against the grain and claimed that Sinner is not as comparable to Novak Djokovic as many make out, having beaten the latter earlier this year. And It is hard to see the final of the ATP Finals going any other way than the US Open final, with Sinner beating Taylor Fritz in straight sets.
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