Who is Jannik Sinner?
If you’ve paid attention to Men’s Tennis in the last few years, you’ve definitely heard his name. Born August 16th, 2001 in San Candido, Italy, he is Italy’s young tennis star. At the young age of 22 he has already won a Grand Slam and is the highest ranked Italian Tennis player in history.
Early Childhood
Although Jannik is a tennis superpower, he didn’t start off by playing tennis. In fact, his first sport was skiing, and his first language was German, not Italian. Jannik grew up in South Tyrol, which was a territory of Austria before WWI. At the age of 13, his life began to change. He started to take tennis more seriously than he did before. Shortly after his success in tennis, he moved to the northwest part of Italy to train at the academy of Riccardo Piatti in Bordighera. Piatti, who was very impressed with Sinner’s skills while watching him in a tournament in Milan, credited skiing for Sinner’s immense focus and desire to compete. In just two years, Sinner jumped 795 spots in the rankings, going from 870th to 75th in the ATP rankings.
Going Pro
Sinner’s success didn’t take long. After 2 years of playing in Piatti’s Academy, he became bored with his youth success and officially went pro in 2019. Shortly after turning pro, he won a tournament in Bergamo as a wildcard entry. Nine months later, he won the Next Gen ATP Finals. In early 2022, he made it to the big stages and was officially ranked as the 10th Best Tennis Player in the world. In 2023, Jannik really began to show his strengths and what he had been working on. At the 2023 ATP awards, Jannik won most improved player of the year and fan favorite award.
Sinner, who began the year ranked number 15, reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon. He also won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto, advanced to the ATP finals match in his Turin debut, and led Italy to the Davis Cup final, all in one year. He finished the 2023 season at a career-high ranking of #4 in the world. Jannik did not slow down there. In January of 2024, he officially won his first Grand Slam in Australia, becoming the first Italian to achieve this feat after defeating Daniil Medvedev of Russia. He then went on to claim his second title by winning the Rotterdam Open Crown against Alex De Minuar. After winning the Miami Open on March 31st, Jannik climbed to the number 2 spot in the world rankings. He had stated his goals for the year, with winning the Olympics being the next big target for him.
Jannik Sinner Currently
After winning the Miami Open title, Jannik is now playing in the Monte-Carlo Masters. His current coaches are Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill. Sinner is paving his way to victory, and is a new generation player to definitely keep an eye out for. Tennis fans all over the world are excited to see how he progresses in the game.
Works Cited
“Mostly the Olympics” – Sinner on his goals for 2024. (2024, April 4). Retrieved April 9, 2024, from Tennis Majors website: https://www.tennismajors.com/atp/try-to-be-as-competitive-as-possible-in-all-grand-slams-but-mostly-the-olympics-sinner-on-his-goals-for-2024-753643.html
Jannik Sinner. (2023, November 30). Retrieved from Wikipedia website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jannik_Sinner
Nast, C. (2024a, January 28). Jannik Sinner Wins His First Grand Slam at the 2024 Australian Open. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from Vogue website: https://www.vogue.com/article/jannik-sinner-wins-first-grand-slam-2024-australian-open
Nast, C. (2024b, April 4). The Stunning Rise of Tennis’s Jannik Sinner. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from Vogue website: https://www.vogue.com/article/profile-jannik-sinner-june-2024#:~:text=Two%20years%20after%20he%20enrolled
(2024). Retrieved April 9, 2024, from Usopen.org website: https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2023-12-15/jannik_sinner_dominates_2023_atp_awards.html