Jannik Sinner after winning Citi Open: "There is still a lot of work to do, I'm already focusing on next week"

Jannik Sinner defeated home favorite Mackenzie McDonald in three sets in the 2021 Citi Open final on Sunday to win his third ATP title. With the win, the 19-year-old became the youngest ATP 500 champion since the category was introduced in 2009.

Sinner and McDonald exchanged a pair of breaks in the first set before the Italian broke his American opponent for the third time to take the opening set 7-5.

McDonald hit back by winning the next set 6-4, but Sinner took charge in the third set and went 5-3 up. The Italian, however, struggled to cross the finish line, wasting two match points before getting broken while serving at 5-4. Sinner did not let the setback affect him and raised his level once again to close out a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 win.

During his post-match press conference, Sinner was asked if he felt his level was high enough to compete with the best players on tour. In response, the Italian said he still had a lot of areas to improve on.

"I think there is still much work to do, to be honest," Sinner was quoted as saying by Alex Gruskin from Cracked Racquets. "A lot of experience to put in, working hard as we are doing now and, you know, trying to play important matches and important moments. Today I think I had a lot of them. I can learn many things from today."

“I think there is still much work to do, to be honest.”- Jannik Sinner on if his level is already good enough to compete against and beat the very best on the @atptour pic.twitter.com/puZwflRtPm

— Alex Gruskin (@GreatShotPod) August 9, 2021

Sinner added that he has a long way to go before he can even think of competing with the best on a regular basis.

"But I think, you know, when the best players are playing their best tennis, they are very, very tough to beat. I don't know. I'm just already focusing about the next week," Sinner said.

"It was a little bit of a roller-coaster" - Jannik Sinner on his three-set tussle with Mackenzie McDonald

Sinner was the better player for most of the first set against McDonald. But it was the American who stepped up during the big points and played fearless tennis. Sinner needed as many as 11 set points to be able to close out the opener.

It was a similar story in the final set as Sinner squandered two match points on McDonald's serve and then faltered while trying to serve it out. However, he was eventually able to seal a 7-5 win.

Delving deeper into the mental aspect of tennis, Sinner admitted that McDonald raised his level in the crunch moments. But the Italian was pleased with the fight he showed to keep churning out opportunities for himself.

Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning the 2021 Citi Open

“I think it’s tough mentally because I had a lot of chances,” Sinner admitted. “I couldn’t use it because first, he was playing better in the crucial moments. But I tried to work for one more chance and for one more chance and try to break him like this."

"It was a little bit of a roller-coaster to be honest, because I started well in the third set. I tried to go a little bit up with the rhythm, play a little bit faster. I broke him like this. And then trying to serve it out I had two match points, and then after I was not serving well. He was returning well."

Sinner said he tried to stay strong mentally and physically, and was rewarded after nearly three hours of play.

“[I was ] trying to stay mentally strong and obviously physically if you’re playing nearly three hours. I played doubles as well this week. So, as I said yesterday, [at 19 years old] if you play really long, you recover fast. So obviously it is not physical, but I think most likely it was mental.”