Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Jannik Sinner Saturday afternoon in Monte-Carlo. The turning point likely occurred in the middle of the third set, when the umpire failed to call a double fault on the Greek, which would have given the Italian a two-break lead.
It was an exciting and unpredictable semifinal between two players with very different styles. This Saturday, in their duel at Monte-Carlo, Stefanos Tsitsipas won the first set, and Jannik Sinner responded by taking the second.
The winner of the last Australian Open even seemed to have gained the upper hand by breaking at the start of the third set. Then, everything changed.
While facing a double-break point, the Greek served a second service that was clearly too long. However, neither the line judge nor the chair umpire called the fault. The game continued, and Tsitsipas won that point, giving him a reprieve.
Incredulous, the Italian approached the contentious mark, indicating with his fingers that the ball had indeed landed outside the service box. In vain. Visibly irritated – a rarity for him – it should be noted, Sinner lost the game shortly after.
The Italian should have led 4-1 with his serve to follow, which would have ideally positioned him to finish the job and move on to the final.
Instead, the gap was reduced to 3-2, and the Athenian, coming back from far behind, had the last word (6-4, 3-6, 6-4), fully aware of how close he came to a different outcome. “The match would have been completely different if my serve had been judged out. I agree that I would have been in a very difficult position in that case,” Tsitispas said, according to Eurosport.
This officiating error – remember, hawk-eye is not used on clay – thus had unfortunate consequences for the 22-year-old player. Asked about it after the match, he did not hide his disappointment. “It’s hard to accept; I was playing really well at that moment,” he told the press. “Everything was going in the right direction tactically.”
Sinner only confirmed what everyone had noticed: after being the victim of this mistake, he inevitably spiraled. Mentally and physically, as the two are connected. “Afterwards, I got cramps, most likely because of what happened,” he confessed. “Because it also affects your nerves, and you overthink, making it difficult to play. I still tried to do the best I could.”
Diminished, the young man from Trentino-Alto Adige couldn’t keep up with an opponent who ‘raised his level of play’, as the defeated player rightly noted.
