Dusan Lajovic brought a stark reminder of the highs and lows of ATP Tour tennis on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open.
Just three days after Jannik Sinner lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto, Lajovic defeated the Italian 6-4, 7-6(4) in Cincinnati. The Serbian produced a stunning display of clean hitting on Grandstand to overwhelm Sinner, who showed signs of fatigue but was nonetheless outplayed by the Serbian qualifier.
“I obviously knew that it was going to be tough because whenever you are playing somebody who is in great form and has a lot of confidence, they play well in the important moments,” said Lajovic. “You could see that, he was saving so many break points and everything when it was close, he was there.
“I knew I had been serving very well the past couple of days, so I thought if I continue to use my serve, both with the flat and the kick out wide, I could dominate the point after the serve. This is what I did most of the time in my service games… I was happy to finish in two sets because I know that going three sets against these kinds of players, it’s always going to be much tougher.”
Four wins this week 🔢
Four Top 10 victories in a row 🔝
Qualifier @Dutzee dismisses Toronto champion Sinner 6-4 7-6(4) with a sublime display@CincyTennis | #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/hxwLDhccKC
— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 16, 2023
Lajovic’s superb all-around performance included winning 100 per cent (16/16) of points at the net and saving all five break points he faced. It was his fourth straight victory against Top 10 opponents, following his wins against Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev en route to the title in Banja Luka and his victory against Felix Auger-Aliassime in Madrid.
“I’ve started changing a lot of things about me,” said Lajovic, when asked about the secret behind his recent success against the Tour’s top players. “This year I started doing a lot of mental health training, with a therapist and everything, and I started to change some things about myself, which is always hard and especially when you are over 30.
“We are very established as what we are [at that age], so changing takes great effort, but it started working. I started playing this season really well. I had unfortunate timing with chicken pox, which I got in Paris and was out until Wimbledon, and it took me a couple more weeks to get back on track. Now I’m finally back where I was before.”
The World No. 66 Lajovic had not won a match in four attempts in Cincinnati prior to defeating Francisco Cerundolo in the first round on Monday. The 33-year-old will look to continue his run in Ohio by upsetting another Top 10 player, home favourite Taylor Fritz, in the third round.
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