Bharath Ramaraj
“He is like an AI-generated player.” – Alexander Bublik said after suffering a crushing 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 loss to the defending US Open champion and the current No. 1 ranked player, Jannik Sinner. Bublik came into the 2025 US Open on a high, having won the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad and the recently concluded Generali Open. He had also got the better of Sinner in June, albeit it came on grass. However, that loss was an anomaly in a season where Sinner has won 94 sets and lost just 14 sets.
So, why has it become so difficult to usurp Sinner, especially on a hard-court? And why does it seem as if Sinner is like an ‘AI robot’ to his opponents? Here’s a short analysis.
In a nutshell, compared to others, Sinner cracks the tennis ball a touch harder, his groundshots can be heavier, and he is tighter on the lines. Basically, he is a little more consistent than even some of his biggest rivals on the tour. Remarkably, in September last year, he took the first position in terms of the quality of both his forehands and backhands as measured by TennisViz.
At that juncture, Sinner’s forehand and backhand speeds were five and seven miles per hour quicker than everyone else on the tour. At the same time, he imparted 300 more RPM on both the wings. To make it even better, Sinner was the leader of the pack when it came to quality of returns. Going by how well Sinner has played this year, it would take a brave man to bet against him being on top of those quality measures.
Sinner’s backhand in particular has given sleepless nights for his opponents. Maybe the lag angle that he creates is the reason behind Sinner generating so much racquet speed with a compact backswing. He also uses his long arms akin to a lever on his ‘inside-out swing path’. And then you add the fact that Sinner hardly makes unforced errors on the backhand side.
Just to illustrate the point further, take into consideration the Miami final between Grigor Dimitrov and Sinner last year. The Italian attempted 57 backhands and not a single one of them was an unforced error. I repeat, not a single unforced error on that wing. Even on the forehand wing, there are enough examples that tell something about his power and depth. How about Sinner, creating a mind-numbing angle via the cross-court forehand, despite being out-of-court position, against Carlos Alcaraz, in the second set of the Wimbledon final.
Sinner’s game is also like an impregnable fortress over long rallies. For instance, in the 2025 Wimbledon, last-four game versus Novak Djokovic, he moved this side and then that side – from net to baseline and back to net – before smashing the overhead to make it 40-15 and force a set point. Last but not the least, Sinner’s clutch second serve has bailed him out of many difficult situations.
Despite heaping praises on Sinner, a word of caution has to be thrown in here. Occasionally, Sinner has looked rather mortal in the ongoing US Open. In the Denis Shapovalov-Sinner encounter, the latter made five double faults alongside 36 unforced errors. His first-serve percentage was also down at 58 percent. Perhaps there is still a window of opportunity for Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz to pip him in the later stages of the tournament. After all, in professional sport, no one is invincible.
Follow Revsportz for latest sports news