by Gaia Piccardi
Sinner ready to play the ATP in Monte Carlo: «Did they describe me as too good? Maybe they exaggerated a little, but I lead a normal life, if someone is sick I help them, if I see a child I play with them. The Olympics? The standard-bearer must be a sportsman for whom the Games mean everything”
He is relaxed (“I like the pressure, but I also like to lead a simple life: it’s important to me”), happy because he just got tickets for his father (as he calls him), curious: “American swing on the fast is went very well, now I really want to see how I react on clay.”
Jannik n.2 in the ranking resembles the Sinner who was not yet closely following Djokovic: planted at the center of his world, while all around Monte Carlo goes crazy for the Italian champion, the word he utters most often, and with greatest participation, is “normality” . Normality of the incoming family, of the profession he has chosen, of the overtaking on the horizon. A future king of normal tennis, if that’s ever possible.
Jannik, between Indian Wells and Miami there was a feel-good narrative from a Heart book: the umbrella held by the ball girl, the water for the spectator, the ball game with the child. All that’s left to do is talk to the birds. Do you like this image of yourself or are you exaggerating a bit?
«Well, perhaps we’ve gone a little further. To me it seemed like I was doing normal things: you see someone who isn’t well, you help him; you meet a child, there is a ball, you take two shots. I don’t even think about it. It’s my way of life. On the pitch I’m serious, I do my rituals, but after the match I like to joke. I am like this, I have always been like this: the difference is that now I have more cameras on me, more attention. And everything is amplified. But let’s not exaggerate, come on…”.
But does it have a flaw?
«I have the same defects as any other boy my age. Like I don’t wash the dishes when I finish eating, I leave them there and deal with them two days later.”
But it’s not a big flaw.
«I get angry too, as it should be. But in life the moments must be understood: there is a time to joke, a time to get angry, a time to be serious. My flaw in tennis, for example, is that sometimes I’m in too much of a hurry: I want to learn everything straight away. But I also understood that if I rush, I lose clarity in my mind and that situation, instead of helping me, screws me over.”
Djokovic, almost resigned to overtaking him at the top, says that Sinner’s big change compared to last year is that today she wins the important matches.
«Yes, but I can’t win everything: it’s impossible. Who said that now I don’t lose anymore? It happened at Indian Wells. I have certainly learned from mistakes and experience, it has shown in recent months. It was a progressive growth, the last step was missing, which arrived on the fast track. Now the land begins, everything changes: difficult but also interesting months await me.”
A year ago, here in Monte Carlo, he told us the news of father Hanspeter being more present as a chef, to make up for lost time. Would you like your brother Mark to attend tournaments more often?
«Nothing will change: my mother still doesn’t watch the games because she gets nervous, and if I call her she often doesn’t answer because she’s busy. My brother works, so he can’t follow me. I invited my best friend to Indian Wells: I was happy that he came because he was able to see how my world and my life work. He saw that, win or lose, I am still the same Jannik he met at school. I care about keeping the people I love so much close to me. Winning has a weight, but the most important thing is the affection. When I was little and my parents came home from a hard day’s work, they still smiled.”
Four kilos of muscle more than last year: how much will he grow physically in 2024?
«Oh God, I’m bad at numbers, but I’ve grown in height: 1.92/1.93, no longer the 1.88 reported on the ATP website. I don’t overdo the weights, doing too many is risky. As well as physical, my growth is tactical: now I can play without thinking too much, everything comes more naturally. Thinking takes away fluidity. But to do this you have to be able to trust your body and certain shots, which didn’t work well for me before. In the gym only my team and I know how much work I do: the result is that I’m fine, I’ve played all of 2023, and up until now, without having any problems. And even when I’m tired, I recover faster.”
What are you asking for at the Monte Carlo tournament this year?
«Not much. The goal is to do a week of active training, thanks to the matches. Let’s see what comes out of it. The focus of my season will be Paris between Roland Garros and the Olympics, with Wimbledon in between. Even Rome for me, as an Italian, is a very important tournament. Clay isn’t the surface I’m most comfortable on but it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to play on it… It’s just that adaptation takes time: I’m trying to make friends even with clay.”
What intrigues you about the Olympics?
«The atmosphere, the fact that it only happens every four years, the sharing, meeting other athletes. I would like to go to the stadium to watch athletics. In Tokyo, three years ago, I didn’t feel ready but now everything has changed.”
After the tirade about Sanremo (goes? Doesn’t it?) the tirade about the role of flag-bearer for Italy at the Paris Games is ripe: is it right for Jannik Sinner to do it?
«In my opinion it is right that an athlete who has already won a gold medal does it. For me it will be the first time at the Games, I feel I have made Italian tennis take a good step forward together with the other Italians, but honestly the flag should be carried by those who base their career on the Olympics. Then if they want to give it to me, I’m happy but as a tennis player I have the four Slams, the nine Master 1000s, the Davis Cup… For me the Olympics is a tournament, something more. For others it’s the tournament.”
Right reasoning.
«I read an interview with Usain Bolt in which he said: I train for four years to run one hundred meters in nine seconds. He hit me.”
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April 8, 2024 (changed April 8, 2024 | 07:20)
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