What to keep despite losing three finals | Monday's net

The concrete stadiums and blue-and-blue fields north of downtown Cincinnati and the White House are approximately 760 kilometers apart: an eight-hour drive on Interstates 70 and 71 , or three and a half hours between flights and airport transfers. The finals of the men's and women's Masters 1000 are scheduled for Ohio. At the same time, in Washington , Donald Trump and European heads of state, including Volodymyr Zelensky , are discussing how to stop the massacres in Ukraine. Events unparalleled in their significance and potential consequences. However, if it is true—as George Orwell argued—that "serious sport has nothing to do with fair play, is linked to hatred, jealousy, boasting, contempt for rules, and the sadistic pleasure of witnessing violence: in other words, it's war without the gunfire," then a very thin thread connects the two places. Where war is sublimated, as in Cincinnati, Jannik Sinner understands when fighting no longer makes sense . Where the lives of millions of men and women depend on the decisions of a few leaders, it seems that warfare "with gunfire" always retains its own force, both atavistic and unstoppable. End of the often overused sport-war metaphor.

There's little to say about the match between the defending Italian champion and Carlos Alcaraz on center court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center: five games with one player struggling to even run and another in top form and great form, 23 minutes without rallies, 29 points for the Spaniard and 8 for the Italian . The retirement could have even come after the third game. It's not the first time Sinner has had nervous or physical problems: it happened against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals in Melbourne in 2022, in the fifth set of the quarterfinals at the US Open that same year against Alcaraz , in the match against Daniel Altmaier in the second round of the 2023 Roland Garros, in the dramatic quarterfinal at Wimbledon last year against Daniil Medvedev when he even vomited on court, and last month at the Championships in the round of 16 against Grigor Dimitrov. He often manages to recover, as he did a few hours ago in his victory over France's Terence Atmane, but sometimes he doesn't: "I haven't been feeling well since yesterday, and I got worse during the night," he said during the awards ceremony. "I tried, but it didn't work." We will all do well to remember this fragility of his in the future.

Paolini and the Musetti-Sonego duo

There were four Italians in the finals of the specialties of the third major American tournament, after the spring ones in Indian Wells and Miami : in addition to Sinner, there were Jasmine Paolini in the singles and the two Lorenzos, Musetti and Sonego , in the doubles. None of them lifted the cup. The Carrara native and the Turin native lost on Sunday in the decisive long tie break against specialists Nikola Mektic, born in 1988, Croatian, and Rajeev Ram, born in 1984, American (4-6 6-3 10-5), while the Italian number 1 and world number 8 succumbed to the blows of Iga Swiatek , competitive on every surface after her triumph at Wimbledon . An initial blaze put the former student of Renzo Furlan ahead 0-3, but she was then caught and overtaken by the Polish player. The rallies were brisk at first, with winners coming down the line, but then the quality, variety, and power increased thanks to both players. At 5-all, Iga once again took control, closing at 7-5. The balance was confirmed in the second set, marked by multiple breaks, with Jasmine making a brilliant comeback in the sixth game thanks to one of the most spectacular points seen in two weeks in the deep American tennis scene, already admirably described by David Foster Wallace . Undaunted, Paolini kept pace with the former WTA No. 1, now unofficially No. 2, until the end, but the 6-4 result confirmed the feeling that she now knows how to trouble Swiatek. It's a matter of time.

Sinner and Paolini reached the Cincinnati Open finals after very different but equally effective runs. He had comfortably swept through every round except the one against Adrian Mannarino, while she had struggled almost every round, effectively dominating only Barbora Krejcikova , whom she defeated 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 a year ago when the grass-court title at the Championships was at stake. Here are the brief summaries for those distracted by the August holidays and unable to follow the action of the summer's only combined 1000m event.

On August 9, Jannik opened with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Colombian Daniel Elahi Galán in 59 minutes, adding just five errors in the opening set. His match against the convincing Canadian Gabriel Diallo was more closely contested (6-2, 7-6), but was interrupted by a fire alarm at the start of the second set: the Italian had to save a set point in the tie-break to prevail. In the round of 16, his match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino was affected by a nearly three-hour rain interruption and by the ATP number one's poor scoring form (6-4, 7-6). However, he managed the decisive moments with composure. The quarterfinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime quickly turned into a one-man show (6-0, 6-2 in 71 minutes). Finally, on Sunday, his twenty-fourth birthday was celebrated in style: 7-6, 6-2 against the surprise Frenchman Terence Atmane, never conceding a break point and winning 91 percent of his first-serve points. Statistically, Sinner had been consistently efficient until now: zero sets dropped, an average of just 2.75 games conceded per match, and a 91 percent first-serve point win rate in the semifinals—a consistency unmatched in recent hard court history.

Jasmine's path had been the most demanding, as always, punctuated by commitments on even-numbered days in singles and odd-numbered days in doubles, alongside Sara Errani: in total, including today's match, nine matches in as many days. The opening match on August 10th against Maria Sakkari , former world number 3, was highly tense, resolved in tie-breaks after suffering a comeback from the Greek and squandering three break opportunities in the second set. American Ashlyn Krueger had done her best in the first set but collapsed in the second (7-6 6-1). In the round of 16, revenge for the disappointment of Wimbledon 2024 materialized, in miniature: 6-1 6-2 against Czech Krejcikova , annihilated in just over an hour. The quarterfinals confirmed that her success against Coco Gauff on the clay of the Foro Italiano in May was no fluke. After losing the first set, she adjusted her focus and pace, then extended the rallies, playing primarily on the American's backhand: 2-6 6-4 6-3. The semifinal marked her coming of age: 6-3 6-7 6-3 against Russian Veronika Kudermetova , bucking the momentum after a missed opportunity to close out the match at 5-3 in the second set. At this stage of her career, service efficiency, often above 60 percent, seems to be the young player from Lucca's strong point. Cincinnati statistics show that, even under pressure, she has managed to maintain an effective serve (between 57 and 66 percent of points won) and good return performances, winning over 57 percent of total points in her toughest matches.

Having three out of four finals featuring Italians was a first for a tournament of this caliber. Now, we need to take the positives from the Midwest run that preceded the US Open and quickly forget the consequences. In the immediate future, it's not out of the question that Sinner might withdraw at the last minute from the mixed-court tournament, according to the new format invented by Flushing Meadows strategists and marketing experts. He's scheduled to take the court in a few hours, at 8:20 PM, paired with Czech Katerina Siniakova against Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic. We'll know what he intends to do soon.