Jannik Sinner questions ‘very unusual’ Six Kings Slam court surface

Jannik Sinner said he will need to adapt to the “unusual” court at the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia as he prepares for another showdown with Novak Djokovic.

Sinner raced to a 6-2 6-3 opening victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion’s first match since retiring from the Shanghai Open earlier this month.

The Italian had few problems beating Tsitsipas as he repeatedly targeted the Greek’s one-handed backhand with vicious blows from his forehand.

But he said the court at the ANB Arena was temperamental, with the surface giving an extremely high and wide bounce on some kick-serves while being flat and slow during other rallies.

“It's a very unusual indoor court,” Sinner said. “It is a very interesting situation we have to deal with here on the court because it's quite bouncy, with new balls it's quite fast and it slows down with with used balls.”

The court was also extra grippy with Sinner, who like his semi-final opponent Djokovic prefers to slide on hard courts, receiving too much purchase as he raced up to a ball at the net and attempted to slide into the shot.

Sinner marched into double-break leads in both sets against Tsitsipas, who holds a 6-3 winning record against the four-time grand slam champion but could not defend his backhand from Sinner’s attacks.

“We played already many times, of course,” Sinner said. “By the time we become better players and we know each other's game a little bit more, so I knew a little bit also tactically how to prepare for the match. I just tried to stay quite aggressive, especially on the return games. I felt like I was serving very well in the important moments.”

Sinner will go for a seventh consecutive victory against the 24-time grand slam champion Djokovic, if you include their meeting in last year’s Six King semi-finals. Sinner has won both matches against the 38-year-old this season, in the French Open and Wimbledon semi-finals.

“It’s a huge honour to play again, against a legend like Novak,” Sinner said. “It's great to have him still here playing in the highest level of our sport. He’s a great role model. He's still hungry to win big titles and and that's why he still keeps playing. Hopefully it's going to be interesting tomorrow.”