Why Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner's tennis rivalry is also a conversation

New York Times

16 hours ago

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — The comparisons between the reserved Italian prodigy and the fiery Serbian legend date to the pre-Covid-19 days. Jannik Sinner was just starting his climb up the tennis ladder; Novak Djokovic was about to launch his decisive overtake of the greats who came before him.
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Here was another former skier who moved around the court like he was tearing through a slalom. Another lanky and elastic player who played that aggressive form of defensive tennis. He was whipping forehands on tight angles and cultivating a backboard-like backhand that rarely broke down. He had a serve that needed improvement, but could become unbreakable.
Sinner was Djokovic 2.0. But what about now?
With so many upsets tattering the Wimbledon draw sheets this year, the biggest stars — with the exception of Coco Gauff — have largely slid into the second week below the radar. But every other day has brought an opportunity to compare the greatest player in men's tennis and one of his heirs, ahead of an increasingly likely showdown in the semifinals July 11.
By the end of play Monday, Djokovic and Sinner will thrice have played within a couple hours of each other on Centre Court. It is the sport's ultimate microscope. It reveals who players are and are not like nowhere else. There is no time or space to hide a weakness on a grass court, especially the biggest one at the world's best-known and most hallowed tennis tournament.
Saturday's second instalment of this double feature saw Sinner strut his stuff first. He delivered the sort of merciless straight-sets win (over Spain's Pedro Martinez) that long ago became Djokovic's trademark at the All England Club. It was an hour and three-quarters of those increasingly small, lightning quick steps, and an ever-more strategic mix of power, shotmaking and precision serving — exactly the recipe that has put the trophy in Djokovic's hands seven times. Sinner lost just 17 games in his first three matches, breaking a record of 19 previously held by Roger Federer.
Once Sinner was through with Martinez, Djokovic put on one of his psychic clinics, tap dancing his way across the grass to a 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 demolition of Miomir Kecmanović, also of Serbia. And so these two players, at opposite poles in their careers but together at the very top of the sport, continued their symbiotic weave toward a confrontation that all of tennis wants to see as many times as it can, before Djokovic says he is done being the resistor to Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz's high-voltage takeover of his throne.
The synergy between Sinner and Djokovic is hardly an accident. Riccardo Piatti coached both of them at his academy in their formative years. And as he has done with so many other young players who seek out his advice, Djokovic has spent plenty of time practising with Sinner, especially when they both were living in Monte Carlo several years ago.
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They still occasionally practise now, though Djokovic spends most of his downtime in Belgrade. And Sinner, 23, has never forgotten the tips that Djokovic has passed along.
'He gave me a lot of information that I can (use to) make my game similar to his, but in my style,' he said of Djokovic in a news conference at the All England Club. 'He is definitely the main person I look up to, trying to do a couple of things like him.'
They are different players. Sinner is several inches taller and his serve is light years ahead of where Djokovic's was when he was Sinner's age. But he also knows that they are more alike than different.
'How we maybe hit the ball on the forehand and backhand,' Sinner said of the main similarity between them, likely referring to the way they both like to stand close to the baseline as they tee off on their groundstrokes, and use their innate ability to time the ball and use its energy, momentum and direction to turn it back the other way.
Djokovic said he first hit balls with Sinner when the Italian was about 14 years old. 'Skinny and tall,' is how he remembers Sinner, just like he was at that age. Speaking Saturday night after his win, he focused on what Sinner has changed in the past couple of years on his ascent to the highest echelons.
'The work that he has done with his team over the last couple of years is tremendous in terms of his improvement. Really, serve, movement, accuracy. I mean, as much as everybody talks about the speed of his shots, but the timing is incredible.
'I think he decreased the number of unforced errors he had maybe in the first few years of his career, and now he's just super accurate and constantly puts pressure on the opponent because he plays so fast.'
Djokovic has had nothing but praise for Sinner for some time now.
'He's been playing some terrific tennis, attacking tennis, and just super strong from every aspect of his game,' he said ahead of their semifinal at the French Open, which Sinner won in straight sets. It was his fourth consecutive win over Djokovic.
Djokovic last beat Sinner at the ATP Tour Finals in 2023. That was when Djokovic noticed that Sinner's trajectory was truly shifting, along with everybody else in tennis. He had a very close-up view. They played twice in five days, with Djokovic losing the first match and then winning the second. They had also played in the Wimbledon semifinals four months before, with Djokovic winning in straight sets. Sinner was still trying to figure out grass-court tennis when he got a live-action demonstration of how to do it.
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Two weeks later, at the Davis Cup, Sinner saved three match points in their singles match and then helped beat Djokovic in the doubles. Djokovic kept expecting Sinner's level to drop. Instead, Sinner now had the stability in his groundstrokes that had long been a part of Djokovic's game, and his serve had gone to another level, just as Djokovic's had throughout his career, especially after his elbow injury in 2017.
Sinner's ascent to world No. 1 and Djokovic's best recent season in 2023, when he won three Grand Slams and ended the year as world No. 1, are strikingly similar:
It's pretty hard for two players at the top of the game to play more similarly than that, and their respective shot quality scores for those time periods also line up.
But, as Sinner noted, differences remain, especially on grass where the lower bounces and faster reactions encourage players to mix up their shots whether they are attacking or defending.
Sinner thinks Djokovic moves with more confidence on the grass than he does. So many little steps, so much anticipation. He seems to know where every shot is headed, and gets to them so quickly, with so much balance. He also plays with more variety than Sinner does, finding spots in the court that Sinner — and most other players who aren't Alcaraz — don't shoot for.
But Sinner is getting closer on that front, too, and he put an extra emphasis on it as he started on the grass this year. The past 18 months he has stuck to his core shots 86.5 percent of the time on average. At Halle, Sinner's warmup for Wimbledon, that dropped to just under 80 percent.
He's also learned a big lesson for succeeding on grass, which is to hit a lights-out serve. It's what Djokovic has done most of the past seven years, combining speed and placement in a way that has made him incredibly difficult to break. Sinner watched Djokovic's second-round defenestration of Dan Evans. He saw a player serving as well as he ever has when he is on.
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'He has improved a lot, the serve,' he said of Djokovic after that match. 'He was serving incredibly well.'
Sinner has tried to do that, too, not just in terms of power but with accuracy. In 2022, 67.5 percent of his serves landed within two feet of the lines. This year, serving harder than he did four seasons ago, he's up to 73.5 percent. That perhaps, has created the most important similarity of all. Through the first three rounds, Sinner won 100 percent of his service games. Djokovic was right with him until his final service game against Kecmanović.
So maybe, in the end, what's true in life is also true in tennis: it's all about picking the right role models.
As he often is, Djokovic was happy to play the part.
"I'm glad that I was able to in a sense influence him in a positive way, " Djokovic said, "hopefully as someone that he was looking up to in terms of the game."