Tactical Analysis: Jannik Sinner Triumphs Over Borna Coric

Jannik Sinner returned to competitive action with a comprehensive victory over world number ninety-four Borna Coric. In his first singles outing since a five-set loss to Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon, he breezed through in the face of little resistance. It’s the first of two master events before the US Open begins later this month. The Italian’s hard court level is as good as anyone. No doubt, he will be eyeing up his second grand slam title of the season.

Since Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic lifted this year’s Wimbledon and Olympic titles, Jannik Sinner has become the forgotten man. Despite his world number-one ranking, it feels as though this hard court season is vital for him to restate his claim as the world’s best.

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The Opening Set

In the meantime Jannik Sinner took to Montreal to defend his Masters Title in Canada. With the annual venue rotation with the WTA, he found himself in different surroundings as last season he defeated Alex De Minaur in Toronto. Montreal still has the typically gusty conditions associated with the pre-US Open swing.

The clash started with a series of pleasing-to-the-eye rallies. Borna Coric attempted to take the world number one to an uncomfortable place by using variety. The Croatian attempted multiple drop shots and hit several awkward slices. Admittedly though, without much success.

When Sinner’s machine-like ball striking kicked into gear he dominated and took an early break. Having already played three taxing matches (two in qualifiers) Coric struggled physically.

Sinner, a typically ruthless competitor, preyed on this and upped the anti, securing a double break and a six-two opening set.

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The Closing Set

The second set opened in a similar fashion. An entertaining pair of games had the crowd on the edge of their seats. Coric held on for dear life, but Sinner broke again in the third game. Many of the same patterns were on show with Sinner’s baseline game quintessentially solid.

Often an opening-round game can be quite cagey and bring a sloppy performance but Sinner’s decision to pair Jack Draper in the doubles has paid dividends as he looked fresh from the off.

Coric loosened up toward the back end of the second set, forcing Sinner to save a breakpoint while he also hit a Novak Djokovic-esque cross court forehand winner on the run. However, the Australian Open champion wasn’t phased and closed out the affair 6-2, 6-4.

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The Sinner Serve

Service and return are so crucial in tennis, as yesterday emphasised. Anyone in the world’s top one thousand can rally consistently and be competitive from a feeding start. When you add the serve and return, the top players elevate.

For Sinner, it was construction over power. He managed nine aces compared to Coric’s six without hitting a whole deal harder. The second serve was the mightily impressive element. The speed was similar, with the Italian at 102 mph on average and Coric at 99mph. However, Sinner won 67% of his second serve points whereas Coric only managed 32%.

This demoralised the Croatian, as even when Sinner missed his first serve, he couldn’t seize the opportunity.

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Coric’s backhand picked apart

Yet, this was as much about Jannik Sinner’s strengths as Borna Coric’s weaknesses. The Croatian’s backhand was so ineffective. On the cross-court exchanges with Jannik Sinner, it was made to look amateur at times.

Sure, it was consistent, but it caused very little damage. The balancing act is always between how much aggression you sacrifice for consistency, when your consistent shot may lack the gile to hurt an opponent.

He made five errors on the backhand wing compared to his forehand side, yet managed just one winner all match. Against Jannik Sinner, that won’t cut it.

Meanwhile, every second serve that Sinner played into Coric’s backhand, he would go on to win the point.

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Counter-Productive Gameplan

From the off Coric recognised he didn’t have the weapons to out-power Sinner, so instead of opting to shorten the points with winners, he played a steady baseline game focusing on consistency and lengthening the rallies.

This proved to be entirely ineffective as of the forty-four rallies which went above five he won just thirteen points (29%).

Would a different game plan have brought about a different result? Probably not, Sinner is levels above. Should they meet again though, Coric may try a different plan.

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Next Up for Sinner

The world number one now faces Alejandro Tabilo. The Chilean has enjoyed an incredible 2024 seeing him climb to a career-high rank of nineteen. He has shown pedigree against the top players, beating Novak Djokovic in Rome earlier this year.

The twenty-seven-year-old defeated Frances Tiafoe and Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-2 in the previous round and will be coming in sky-high in confidence. Sinner and Tabilo have never met before but you’d expect Sinner to win with relative ease.

Speaking after his second round victory Sinner said;

“I’ve been here for a little bit so I’m maybe a bit more used to the conditions, but still, I’m very happy about the performance. “It was a very tough match. Even if you watched the score, it felt closer for sure. I had to save a break point in the second set and if he makes that one it could potentially change the match. It was a very good mindset today and I’ll try to keep going. Today I felt like I was hitting the ball quite cleanly. It’s very tough to play here, it’s a bit breezy and windy and the ball flies a bit, so we try to get better day by day. Today was for sure a very positive day, so let’s see what’s coming.”