Jannik Sinner’s incredible hot-streak in tennis continues, as the Italian reaches the semifinal of a grand slam event for the fourth time this year. The Italian world number one is a heavy favourite to defend his title at the US Open, but will have to fend off big-serving Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in order to reach the championship match.
Auger-Aliassime is enjoying his best tournament on tour level after a couple of quiet years where he seemed to have lost his mojo. FAA reached the semifinal in New York in 2021, but hasn’t returned to this stage since. With big wins over Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, and Alex de Minaur in the last three rounds, he is on a hot run of form, but will need to play out of his skin to stand a chance against the dominant Italian.
Former world number one and US Open champion Andy Roddick, who possessed a similar skillset to Auger-Aliassime in terms of a powerful serve and forehand relative to his size, had some words of advice for the 25-year-old.
Speaking on his ‘Served’ podcast, Roddick highlighted the importance of variety and unpredictability for the Canadian, and to keep Sinner guessing.
“Listen, he has to serve great. He has to take a lot of risks on his second serve, right? When Sinner gets a second serve and he knows where it’s going … it’s not going to end well for the opponent,” said Roddick.
“That’s why Carlos (Alcaraz) has a decent head-to-head, it’s because Carlos has so much variety, right? He can hit the chip, he can come in. He’s so well-versed in so many different parts of the court,” explained the American, referring to how Alcaraz’s strength against Sinner was his ability to mix things up.
“FAA can’t be predictable. If he’s neutral in a rally, he’s behind, right? That needs to be the mentality, if I’m his coach,” continued Roddick, emphasising the need to be on the front foot against Sinner with consistency through the match, and not being dictated to by the hard-hitting Italian.
‘Darth Sinner comes in and finishes him off…’
However, Roddick did acknowledge that this was a high-risk style, but that was something Felix would have to be ready for and willing to ignore. “And that’s going to manifest in some irresponsible errors. He has to be able to live with those, right, and then you’re going to get the people going, ‘well, he shouldn’t miss that ball’.” he said.
“I promise you he’s good enough not to miss that ball. It’s because if you leave that ball hanging in the wrong part of the court, Darth Sinner comes in and finishes him off,” he concluded, urging the Canadian star to go for the kill rather than die wondering, as so many of Sinner’s opponents have over the last two years.
Auger-Aliassime does hold a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over Sinner, but both wins came in 2022, the Canadian’s best year on tour and before Sinner developed into the winning machine he is today. Their most recent match was at this year’s Cincinnati Masters less than a month ago, where the Italian bulldozed past Auger-Aliassime 6-0 6-2. The score can only get better from there.
