Jannik Sinner is currently the toast of tennis at the top level after his four-set victory over Carlos Alcaraz in last weekend’s Wimbledon final.
The Italian player was in fine form as he came from a set behind to send the French Open champion packing and end his recent dominance at the All England Club.
With Sinner and Alcaraz currently dominating tennis when it comes to the Grand Slam events, naturally, comparisons have started to emerge between those two and Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
When it comes to Federer, he’d sailed off into the sunset before getting the chance to come up against the number one and two from today’s game, but Nadal was still on the scene.
There is one particular game between Nadal and Sinner that lives long in the memory and the Spanish legend felt that it was a contest that proved to be risky business.
The risky match between Rafael Nadal and Jannik Sinner
Long before Sinner had burst onto the scene and started to collect Grand Slam titles with ease, the Italian came up against Nadal at the French Open in 2020.
Toppling the 14-time Roland Garros winner was never going to be an easy thing to do, but Sinner did push him all the way back on that occasion.
Nadal came through 7-6, 6-4, 6-1 against Sinner and although it proved a straight sets victory, the current world number one did offer a glimpse of what he was capable of.
It wasn’t the tennis that this match was best remembered for, however, with Nadal coming through against Sinner at 1:30am in conditions that he felt were less than ideal for tennis.
He said in his press conference afterwards: “No, the problem is the weather. Having two days in the middle is not a big deal. Of course, it is not ideal to finish a match at 1:30 in the morning. But the problem is the weather. It is too cold to play. Honestly, it is very, very cold to play tennis, no?
“I know football players play under these conditions, but is a little bit different. They are all the time moving. We stop, we come back, we stop on the changeovers. It is a sport that you are stopped in a lot of moments, no?
“I think is a little bit dangerous for the body to play with these very heavy conditions. But that’s what happened today.
“I really don’t know why they put five matches on the Chatrier today. That was a risk. I saw it immediately yesterday when they sent me the schedule, because there is a chance that there are a couple of long matches. That’s what happened. A little bit unlucky, of course.
“For me, I just tried to be patient, accept everything, and be in a positive shape. That’s what I did.”
Nadal had Sinner’s number
Although it’s fair to say that Sinner wasn’t the player he is now when he came up against Nadal, he never managed to get the better of the legendary player.
Nadal and Sinner met twice at the French Open, which naturally saw the odds stacked massively against the five-time Grand Slam champion.
Sinner record vs Nadal
Sinner’s rise to the summit has been pretty meteoric and there is no doubt as to who the top player on the current ATP Tour is – with Alcaraz a very close second.
This match going until 1:30am was less than ideal. Professional sport being played at that time and in such conditions is always going to provide challenges and with no curfew at the US Open, Sinner might find himself involved in a few more late finishes in the weeks to come.