Change the color of the grass. From green to blue. Not one, not two, but three finals tomorrow will see Italian players protagonists on the pitches. Two of these in Halle, with Jannik Sinner reaching Bolelli and Vavassori in singles who were already sure of a place in the doubles team since yesterday. The third is that of Queen’s, which will feature Lorenzo Musetti. A magical Saturday, with Jannik Sinner who in the first tournament played as world number 1 reaches his first final on grass, the eighteenth of his career, in which he will go in search of his fourteenth title. Between Sinner and his fourth success of the season after Melbourne, Rotterdam and Miami there will be his friend and doubles partner Hubi Hurkacz, who has already won in Halle in 2022 and who had defeated Sascha Zverev in the first semi-final. It will be played no earlier than 2pm, after the doubles, live on Sky. In the second, however, Sinner beat the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen in an hour and 40′: it ended 6-4 7-6, with Jannik who for the first time in this tournament closed the match in two sets, even if he risked going to the third this time too before saving a set point and winning in the tiebreak against an opponent who proved to be solid and who tried with all his means possible to put the world number 1 in difficulty.
«A final that means a lot to me – the words of Sinner -. They were three tough matches, but there couldn’t have been better preparation for Wimbledon. Then I will have a week of rest, which will be important for my body. This, however, was a good match, with more rallies than yesterday: it was exactly what I needed. I tried to serve very well, but he returned just as well and I had to save a set point that would have put me in third again today. Hurkacz? A champion who plays very well on this surface. It will be a tough match, he is serving well and it will be difficult to break him. But for me it will be a great honor to play in this final.”
The semi-final against Zhang, however, was played under the sun, after the bad weather of the last few days. Open roof and play of light and shadow on the lawn which, however, did not bother us Sinner, who in the first set was first good at coming back in a complicated game (the eighth) when he was down 15-30, then able to break serve from the Chinese who had a double fault at 30-30 and who immediately suffered the push of the South Tyrolean on the break point (yesterday 2/18 for Sinner against Struff). On the first set point, Sinner sent the bunt to the net, then did not forgive with the ace. In the first game of the second set, two shots at the extremes of a champion’s repertoire: first the baseline smash, then the short ball (with a recovery on the tape by Zhang). No opportunity to extend the lead until the 12th game: at 5-6, Sinner found himself 15-30 but reacted strongly with an ace. However, the first double fault of the match gave the first break point and the set point Zhang, canceled out with a scary forehand that even brought coach Darren Cahill to his feet. Everything, in a game in which Sinner even burst out laughing at a spectator’s sneeze.
Laughter, but also great fair play, with the Italian awarding the first serve to Zhang at the start of the tiebreak because too much time had passed between the first and second serves (in the middle, a technical problem with the electronic line judge). But then, Jannik he was ruthless, starting 2-0, flying 5-2 with an ace and winning four match points with an error from Zhang. Of the four, the second was good with an external serve. Sinner, who finished with 30 winners against Zhang’s 23, is the second Italian in the final in Halle after Andreas Seppi (who lost to Federer in 2015): with Hurkacz, however, the precedents are 2-2, but all on other surfaces. However, in the only final, in Miami in 2021, the Pole won, even if there was another Sinner in front, not a cannibal capable of winning 37 out of 40 games in 2024.
With Sinner, he will also play the final Lorenzo Musetti: for the 22-year-old from Carrara it is the third final of his career, the first since 2022 (where he won in Hamburg and Naples) and the first on grass. For Musetti, who had already reached the semi-final on the lawns of Stuttgart last week (lost against Matteo Berrettini, then defeated in the final by Draper), a victory in three sets (6-3 3-6 6-3) over the Australian Jordan Thompson at the end of a battle that lasted two hours and 17 minutes. Only defeat of the day, that of Elisabetta Cocciarettobeaten with a double 6-2 in the Birmingham semi-final by Kazakh Putintseva.
