Sinner vs Khachanov

After the match, after the stretching, and after the massage, Jannik and his team were back in the hotel room.

Darren wanted to go over a few points in the match before they focused on game planning for the Rublev match.

He opened the MacBook Pro and clicked on ESPN+.

During the first set, Jannik had started the match with a form of triples on his return games.

“You started the match well,” Darren said as he zig-zagged the trackpad. “The triples worked well.”

They did, Jannik thought to himself. The plan was to use triples on the return games to start the match and see where it went.

Triples were a way to use the middle of the court on the return of serve and then work the point in either direction.

The plan was to keep it fluid, to keep flipping Khachanov's hands alternating shots from left to right or right to left.

On service games, the plan was to “hide” doubles in the rally by doubling the same location on the first area hit, doubling the second shot, the third, or the fourth.

Again, the goal was to keep it fluid.

Hide the doubles.

And on occasion, throw in a few wheel combos.

Learning how to get the different combos from the practice courts to the matches took twenty-four months.

Twenty-four long months.

Finally, Jannik felt like everything was starting to click.

“He gifted you the break in the first,” Darren said as he stopped the video at 5-4 in the first set.

Jannik smiled.

“I got burned a few points when I kept the ball three or four times in a row in box 3.”

“We accounted for that.”

“I got burned on an early double when I was closing the first set.”

Darren remembered.

Jannik’s serve had been clutch during the breakpoints also.

Another area the kid was getting better at.

But, big serves alone were volatile. It was the mixing of combinations that delivered the body blows.

Darren pressed play on the screen.

Jannik served down the middle of the Deuce side service box.

Khachanov returned the serve back to the middle of the court and Jannik had slid to his left and ripped a forehand inside out to Box 3.

After Khachanov returned the next shot crosscourt, Jannik hit a heavy backhand back to Box 3 that Khachanov ripped down the line to set up a forehand crosscourt winner.

Darren pressed pause.

Jannik stared at the screen, surprised.

“He got me triple.”

“I’m not sure if it was intentional.”

Jannik shrugged.

Most players on tour were using some form of triples.

Darren skipped the next two points.

A (+1) error and a missed return that left the game at 15-30.

He pressed play.

Jannik hit a second serve that Khachanov returned from Box 3. He missed his (+1) to the same location, putting the game at 15-40.

Darren took off his glasses and looked at Jannik.

“I was a little frustrated after the first point,” Jannik said. “I wanted to double the spot again.”

“That’s silly.”

“I know.”

Making better decisions while closing sets had been a chore. Sometimes, when Jannik had felt right, the coaches showed him it was a poor decision. Sometimes, when he had felt wrong, they said it was right. He was finally getting to a place where there was no right and wrong. It came down to the area you were working with.

And the combinations.

But, old habits die hard.

They creep in from time to time.

Nobody’s perfect.

Jannik made a note on his iPhone to replay the service game patterns later tonight.

Darren played the 15-40 point.

Khachanov made an error on shot three over hitting.

“I saw the coaches mimicking for him to get aggressive after he had those break points early in the set,” Darren said.

It was typical of coaches to play the opposite game.

If their player overhit, they put their hands up and pressed down the air, gesturing to relax. If the players underhit, they moved their hands rapidly, gesturing to be aggressive.

All coaches were guilty at some point in their careers.

Over the years, Darren had seen in all.

30-40.

He pressed play again.

Jannik hit a serve out wide that Khachanov hit into the net.

Deuce.

Jannik hit a serve down the middle of the box, he then hit his (+1) to Box 3, his (+2) to Box 2, then his (+3) to back to Box 3, and his (+4) back to Box 2. He got a good look at the next ball and hit a forehand towards Box 1.

It landed in the net.

“You flipped his hands good…”

“…and got the ball I wanted…”

Jannik reached over and grabbed his bottle filled with electrolytes and took a sip.

“He’s gotten better against the quick switches.”

“He has. But, he’s still getting fooled with the mixing of combinations.”
Another thing they had been working on.

Don’t stay too locked into combinations.

Don’t play the same combos match to match.

Learning to build packages for different opponents had been a game-changer.

Ad-out.

Jannik smiled before Darren pressed play.

“I remember this one. Double, move, double.”

“Hide the wheel.”

“I hid the doubles with a wheel.”

Darren smiled.

“And on break point down.”

Great players found ways to win games when they were down. A lot of announcers chalked that up to mental toughness.

Whatever that was.

What it came down to, Darren knew, was escalating value, from practice sets to real matches, of winning three points consecutively.

Putting yourself down 0-40 in practice helped with seeing the situation and implementing different combos based on set scores…but the betting on games in practice had helped seal the deal.

Kind of.

“Khachanov would have owed you some dough,” Jannik said. “He blew a couple of 40-0 leads.”

Over the past twelve months, Jannik had paid out his fair share of debts owed from blowing leads.

“Using the serve and the (+1) as part of the combination seems to be getting better.”

“It has. I like it. I didn’t see the value before, but, now I see how effective it is for attacking movement in different spaces.”

Jannik got up.

“Where you going?”

“Bathroom.”

While he was gone Darren scrolled to the start of the third set and watched the first game.

Jannik had lost it but it was good to see him trying to get more drop shot reps in “real-time.”

“We’re only going to watch a few more minutes,” Darren said when Jannik came back.

The score was 0-1, 0-30.

Darren watched the rally, fixated on the pattern as he took a sip of his water.

Then he spit it out.

And stared in amazement.

During the rally, Jannik had snuck in a double pattern after the first shot. For twelve consecutive shots, he had alternated sides every two shots.

Two to the Deuce, Two to the Ad.

Two to the Deuce, Two to the Ad.

And so on.

“You little shit,” he said. “I didn’t even notice that during the match.”

“It just kind of happened. I wasn’t thinking about it.”

“Bullshit.”

Jannik shrugged.

During the match, at this point, he had felt comfortable enough to experiment with patterns. He also wanted to see if he could pull it off.

“You were getting a little playful this set.”

He was, but, his command of the patterns was feeling the best he had ever felt during a match. Was he going to be able to continue at this level for the rest of the tournament?