Annacone on the 'big improvement' that could help Sinner cut it on the grass

Jannik Sinner enters the 2024 grass-court season atop the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time. After winning his first Grand Slam title and debuting at World No. 1 last Monday, can he add his maiden grass-court title to his incredible calendar year?

The 22-year-old owns a 12-8 record on the surface, with his best result a Wimbledon semi-final run last season. He will begin his 2024 grass campaign at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, where he reached the quarter-finals last season in his tournament main-draw debut before retiring with an adductor muscle injury.

Five years ago, Sinner first played the ATP 500 event in the 2019 qualifying draw at the age of 17. While he did not pick up a win in the play-in tournament, he gained an invaluable experience by practising with 10-time Halle champion Roger Federer at the event.

A sweet welcome for the new No.1 in Halle 🎂@ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/k1EFdJrSXu

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 13, 2024

Sinner has made great strides since he last competed on grass, and there is no doubt that he has all the tools for success on the unique surface. Paul Annacone, who has coached two of the most accomplished grass-court players of all time in Pete Sampras and Federer, analysed the Italian's game and grass-court tennis in general ahead of Sinner's return to the lawns of Halle.

"To me, even though the grass game has evolved, generally, the most effective grass-court players are the ones that are really good at first-strike tennis," the Tennis Channel commentator, who is currently serving as an advisor to Taylor Fritz, told ATPTour.com.

Annacone also pointed to one key Sinner stat as a harbinger of grass-court success: his 56 per cent win rate on second serves in 2023, which was good for third on the ATP Tour behind last year's Wimbledon finalist Novak Djokovic (57.9%) and champion Carlos Alcaraz (56.3%). In the past 52 weeks, Sinner has bumped that figure up to 56.7 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

"He made a big improvement on second-serve success rate," Annacone explained. "His first-serve speeds and accuracy are up. So I think when you look at those two things, and you look at his ability to return aggressively, and also first-strike tennis, power tennis, [playing] aggressively in return games... I think that's going to be a catalyst to drive his success on the grass."

With the changes of surface throughout each season on the ATP Tour, each player must make a decision as to how to adapt his game to the new conditions. For some, the surface dictates the game plan more than others. But for those at the top of the game, it's all about small adjustments, according to Annacone.

"I think everybody needs to find their own way on surfaces on how they play, and then how you plug it in on different surfaces," he said. "The best players do that versus, ‘Oh, I'm going to play on grass, now I'm going to change my whole game around.’ "

In Annacone's opinion, that holds doubly true for Sinner, who does not possess some of the natural advantages that someone like Alcaraz has on the lawns. 

"Even though he's moving much, much better, he's a tall, lanky guy," he said of the Italian. "I actually think that's one of the disadvantages, maybe, compared to a mover like Alcaraz who is lower to the ground. He's much more powerful, he'll probably move a little bit more nuanced and also subtly more balanced than Jannik will on a grass court, I think. So based on that, you really have to be good off of the first strike. So when you look at [Sinner's] improvements in the serve, in particular, that’s a huge bonus. He's a terrific returner. So that’s standard and that is the status quo, but I think serve is going to pay huge dividends for him on the grass this year."

Another part of that first-strike tennis is Sinner's ability to finish off points at net. In that area, Annacone has seen improvements not only in the Italian's technique, but also his positioning in the frontcourt. While one volley is often enough to win a point in the modern game, the world's best players force you to hit multiple volleys — players like Djokovic, who beat Sinner in straight sets last year at Wimbledon. Sinner's tolerance for those situations will be key in his bid to win his first title on the grass, says Annacone.

With just 20 tour-level grass-court matches under his belt entering Halle, Sinner is still learning to win on the surface. But winning has been a constant for him in recent months: He owns a 33-3 record this season and finished 2023 in equally scintillating form. After posting an 8-3 record across grass events in 's-Hertogenbosch, Halle and Wimbledon last season, the time could be ripe for Sinner to make yet another breakthrough this season on the lawns of Europe.