Now that the dust has settled I’ve had more time to think about the historical context of Sinner’s achievement. And it got me thinking, where does this win rank in the hierarchy of tennis upsets? I think it could be a cool project to rank the top 10 biggest GS upsets of all time (or at least of the OE) at some point. To me the biggest GS upset will always be Sod beating RAFA in the 4R at RG in 09. So, that leaves slots 2-10 open. Any suggestions on filling those vacancies?
Back to Sinner vs Joker. Coming into the match Joker had a 33 match winning streak at the AO, and even more impressively was a perfect 10-0 in AO SF (20-0 in SF/F) matches. He had just thrashed Sinner badly in the YEC F in a year where he won 3/4 schlems. Sinner had been playing really well since Beijing in early October. But when it came to GS/BO5 format success he had mostly been reduced to QF or earlier exits. In fact, his sole GS SF appearance before this match came on the grass courts of Wimby vs Joker where he was steamrolled in straights sets. Now Sinner was in the best form out of all the semifinalists, and Joker appeared to be as vulnerable as he ever had been at this stage of his pet schlem. Granted many of us here were used to seeing him play subpar tennis at this stage of his career while the #NextGen players were incapable of taking advantage. Usually the script went Joker would sleepwalk through a set or 2 only to play just well enough to get a late break or steal the set in a TB. From then on it’d usually be one way traffic which would lead to him collecting the soul of another young player and GS title. And indeed it looked like that was going to be case after he took the 3rd set in a TB 8-6. This time however Joker wasn’t able to maintain his improved 3rd set level outside of his serve. Sinner to his credit would keep his cool and went on to close out this history making match: 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
A few days later he capped off his SF triumph by coming back from 2-0 down to beat Medvedev and claim his first GS title.