THE RISE OF JANNIK SINNER
For as long as I can remember, men’s professional tennis has been dominated by Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Between them they have won 66 out of the last 80 major titles, a run that began 20 years ago with Federer’s first win at Wimbledon in 2004. But now a new generation of players is emerging that stands ready to take over when this golden era reaches its end.
One of the best prospects among the new contingent is Jannik Sinner, a gutsy 22-year-old from the small village of San Candido in South Tyrol, very close to the Austrian border. His mother tongue is in fact German, and Sinner himself freely admits that he only learnt to speak Italian fluently when he moved to Bordighera for tennis coaching aged 13. Until then, he seemed destined to become a ski champion, but he decided to switch to tennis because, as he himself explained, ‘In tennis you don’t have anything to be afraid of. In skiing, if you fall, you never know if you might break something. In tennis, if you miss one ball you still have chances to win. In a ski race, if you make one mistake you know that you can’t win’.
With fiery ginger hair, freckles and ultra-pale skin tone, Sinner may not look like a stereotypical Italian, and indeed he was often assumed to be Irish. ‘Whenever I said I was Italian, I used to notice the extent to which this information took people by surprise’. This is no longer the case, as his performances, his stamina, and his calm demeanour have quickly made him a household name and earned him nationwide support. This was cemented with his decisive role in helping his country win the Davis Cup for the first time in 47 years in 2023. He now has a group of superfans aptly named the Carota Boys who support him dressed as human-sized carrots.
Sinner’s popularity has now increased exponentially with his first Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open, becoming only the third Italian man to win a major title and the first since Adriano Panatta in 1976. Sinner didn’t drop a set until the semi-final, before beating 12-time tournament winner Djokovic 3-1, then going on to achieve one of the most thrilling comebacks in finals history with a 3-2 win over Daniil Medvedev. In doing so he joined the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz as the only two players born after the year 2000 to have won a Grand Slam as the pendulum swings towards the new era.
Sinner’s potential is limitless. In the space of just a few months he has surged to the top of the sport. Can he match the longevity of the big three and stay there for the next decade or more? Only time will tell.