From a competition stand point, in the sense of aspiring to get the hands on that trophy, it would be stupid to keep Novak in the tournament when you can decide his fate. For other reasons, when it comes to ranking points, money, home crowd, not give a psychological upper hand to your opponent etc, there are reasons for him to win. But is all this as important as winning the trophy when you already won the group? Only Sinner knows.
Even if he loses, it doesn’t mean he didn’t try. It could be a subconscious or psychological thing too. In tennis every match you play you fight for survival, it’s very rare to be in a position where you enter the court and know whatever happens you will still progress. All the while his opponent has a totally different motivation where he has to win if he wants to progress. It’s a 100 mph crash. If Sinner gets off to a bad start where he really has to dig deep to win and Rune is on fire, I wouldn’t blame him at all if he just lets it go. It might be unprofessional, but the guy is not only through, he won the entire group already. Who are we to say he didn’t actually try? And did he do it just to get Djokovic out, or not to waste unnecessary physical and mental energy? We will never know.
From a competition stand point, in the sense of aspiring to get the hands on that trophy, it would be stupid to keep Novak in the tournament when you can decide his fate. For other reasons, when it comes to ranking points, money, home crowd, not give a psychological upper hand to your opponent etc, there are reasons for him to win. But is all this as important as winning the trophy when you already won the group? Only Sinner knows.
Even if he loses, it doesn’t mean he didn’t try. It could be a subconscious or psychological thing too. In tennis every match you play you fight for survival, it’s very rare to be in a position where you enter the court and know whatever happens you will still progress. All the while his opponent has a totally different motivation where he has to win if he wants to progress. It’s a 100 mph crash. If Sinner gets off to a bad start where he really has to dig deep to win and Rune is on fire, I wouldn’t blame him at all if he just lets it go. It might be unprofessional, but the guy is not only through, he won the entire group already. Who are we to say he didn’t actually try? And did he do it just to get Djokovic out, or not to waste unnecessary physical and mental energy? We will never know.