Jannik Sinner reacts to suffering fourth consecutive defeat

Italy's Jannik Sinner didn't want to panic after suffering a fourth consecutive defeat. 

Sinner, seeded at No. 2, suffered a shock loss in his Atlanta opener as world No. 132 Christopher O'Connell claimed a 7-6 (7) 6-4 win. 

“How do I stay positive? It’s very easy. I’m 19 years old, turning 20 this year, which I think a lot of people forget,” Sinner said, per the ATP website. “For me personally, it doesn’t matter if I win now at 20 or at 23. I think our goal is to become a great player when I am around 23, 24 years old. The process we are doing is [for the] longterm.”

Sinner looking at the bigger picture 

“[I am] playing tennis a lot, enjoying playing tennis, working physically and mentally to be in the best possible position when I am around 23 years old. I don’t know if it’s going to be when I am 23 or 22 or maybe already next week, you never know,” Sinner said. “But what I think is very important [is] to think back where I come from. The people who stayed very close to me know how important tennis is for me, which I think [will be] my life for the next hopefully 20 years.

“[I am] just trying to enjoy every journey. It just started, so hopefully I can still show some good tennis in the future.”

Sinner dropped his serve only once during the match against O'Connel but failed to earn a single break point. 

“Today, I was not serving so bad to be honest,” Sinner said. “In general, I think I was practising well. I didn’t put away one single practice session. I was always focused and obviously the results you cannot see in one or two tournaments. It’s going out in a couple of matches and hopefully I’m going to win some matches here in the U.S. swing, which will give me confidence and then after I’ll start to play my tennis, trying to get 100 per cent out of my potential.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3lhfj8O