Momentum is everything (until it isn’t)

SINNER, KEYS, FRITZ ON THE POWER OF THE ROLL

By Richard Osborn

Ahhh, there’s nothing like a good winning streak.

Just ask Martina Navratilova, who reeled off an Open Era-record 74 consecutive match victories in 1984. Or Novak Djokovic, who holds the mark for the longest tenure atop the PIF ATP Rankings, an astounding 428 weeks. Or Steffi Graf, who swept all four majors and the Olympic Games in 1988, the so-called Golden Slam.

But momentum is a funny thing. Not everyone responds to it in the same way.

“It is very important. But you have to gain momentum. It’s not like it comes by itself,” said world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

Sinner sure snatched some momentum here last year, going back-to-back at the Cincinnati Open and US Open, a feat also accomplished by his WTA Tour counterpart, Aryna Sabalenka. At the same time, there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to momentum. Take Sinner’s most recent grass-court campaign: The 23-year-old Italian suffered a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 second-round stumble at the hands of Kazakh Alexander Bublik in Halle, only to turn around and capture his first Wimbledon title at the All England Club.

“I always try to accept whatever happens,” said the top seed and defending champion in Cincinnati.

“You have to be ready for the next tournament. I’m someone who’s more focused on certain events. These are my bigger targets, bigger goals. At the same time, you have to have good momentum going into the Grand Slams, to the big tournaments, so it is very important.”

Madison Keys, 30, got out of the blocks in a hurry in 2025, winning 18 of her first 19 matches of the season. The American took the WTA 500 crown in Adelaide, then rode that momentum to her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

“I definitely think you can feed off of it. Whenever you get it, it’s great,” said Keys, the sixth seed at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. “But I also feel like I’ve had some of my best results in weeks that happened out of nowhere, with no momentum. For me, as great as momentum is, a lot of it has more to do with feeling really prepared, feeling like I got the reps in on the court, off the court, ready to go into the tournament.”

“You can learn a lot from bad losses,” she added. “You can also have losses where you were off just a little bit execution-wise. Tennis is a few points here or there. You get those few points, and you can get the win.”

Taylor Fritz has seen it work both ways. Last year, his Cincinnati Open didn’t go as planned. The American’s stay was cut short in the opening-round by countryman Brandon Nakashima, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4). However, Fritz promptly turned around and played his way into the final in Flushing Meadows, the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final since Andy Roddick in 2009 (Wimbledon).

“It’s different for everyone,” said Fritz, 27.

“When I play my best tennis, I’m feeling mentally really fresh, ready to go, physically great. A lot of times, that comes right after having some losses. I’m more motivated to have a good result. I have more time to train, get healthy, get ready to go. Of course, it does help when I get some wins, have some confidence. Then I’m locked in and ready to go, my body’s feeling good. That’s the ideal combo.”

That was the case for Fritz this summer: ATP 250 titles in Stuttgart and Eastbourne set him up for success at Wimbledon, where he surged to the semifinals. He followed that with a quarterfinal in Washington and a semifinal in Toronto. On Monday, the world No. 4 moved into the Round of 16 in Cincinnati via a 7-6(4), 7-5 dispatch of 31st seed Lorenzo Sonego on P&G Center Court.

Momentum isn’t everything. But it’s sure nice to have. Sinner perhaps put it best with an on-point analogy: “It’s like going into a tiebreak: It depends on how you play the games before going into the tiebreak. If you’ve tried a couple of things there, you know what works well in these important moments. It’s the same thing for winning and losing matches themselves.”