At 21, he is the third Italian tennis player to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon.
Jannik Sinner he will be 22 on August 16. We see him slyly behind the microphone as he answers awkward questions about his next opponent. In the semifinal, do you prefer to meet Novak or Rublev? the reporter asks him. In recent years we have gotten to know him: he has his own way of being seriously witty, like a geography professor who makes you laugh above all for the tender contrast between his smile and serious air. Jannik has just stopped the run of the man on a mission, the Russian Roman Safiullin, number 92 in the world rankings. Before Safiullin he had regulated Juan Manuel Cerundolo (111 Atp), Diego Schwartzman (98), Quentin Halys (79) and Daniel Galan (85): the list seems to be that of the Challenger of Biella, instead it represents the historical progress of the third Italian ever to reach the semifinal at Wimbledon, the temple of tennis, after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960 and Matteo Berrettini in 2021. On paper the path was easy but then the matches are still won, on grass nothing is enough to finish underneath; Jannik has sailed through the waves like a long-distance captain: now, at the peak of his career so far, he rightly touches his most challenging obstacle.
Sinner is arrived at Wimbledon with the lights off. Expectations around the tournament for him were quite low: Sinner seemed like a distant relative of the tennis player who defeated Alcaraz a year ago and put Djokovic 2-0 down. To tell the truth, the season had also started well, culminating with the three consecutive pearls in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells (semifinal lost to Alcaraz), Miami (final lost to Medvedev) and Montecarlo (semifinal lost to Rune), before the sharp drop between May and June. It all stems from a programming error: after the accumulated fatigue and the change of surface a break would have been appropriate, instead the Barcelona injury triggered a chain of psychophysical problems.
The Roman and Parisian disappointments also dented Sinner’s confidence and the grass-court season didn’t start well either, with a clear and ugly defeat against Ruusuvouri in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and his retirement against Bublik (down by a set and a break ) in the bucolic setting of Halle. In short, there were all the conditions for this favorable scoreboard to turn into a colossal regret. It’s a song whose refrain we know: Sinner at the center of public opinion as if he had yet to prove his true value, as if he continued to break the promise of epicness that we had found in him when he was still a teenager.
In fact, the scoreboard has gradually transformed into an abyss, a black hole, a tempting panorama of those that in most cases cause you vertigo and unexpected defeats against Mr. Pincopallo. The premature departures of Ruud and Fritz left the table empty, then Shapovalov’s atavistic self-harm made the situation almost surreal. Sinner, for his part, did not hold back. He found a biting first – lowering the ball throw by a hand – and even if the percentages remain low he helped himself with a solid and unassailable second so far.
Gradually he rebuilt a certain confidence in his tennis, that of Garibaldi’s irreverent response capable of breaking his opponent’s serve at any moment. All still a little intermittent. There have been worrying blackouts like the one in the second set of the match against Safiullin, in which Sinner lost giving the impression of having mentally disconnected from the match. There were difficulties in making chances: 3 break points converted out of 20 against Galan in the round of 16, for example. Nevertheless he was a mature tennis player, able to feel and manage matches.
It has been said in all languages: Novak Djokovicuninterrupted champion since 2018, does not lose on the central from final of 2013. He has lifted the trophy seven times already and with his records we could fill whole books. Obviously the precedents smile at the Serbian who, moreover, arrives here with all the credentials in order – as if the opposite were possible. The round of 16 saw him beat Hurkacz, an extremely intelligent player who, especially in the first two sets, had seemed totally unplayable on his serve. It’s true, in the end the Pole lost the match mentally, wasting two tiebreak which he almost had in his grasp, but he made a mistake because Nole’s charisma and competitive wickedness are palpable and incomparable, in the decisive moments they enter your head and transform you into your worst opponent – tragic tennis magic.
It can also be underlined how even Novak, frustrated by the ineffectiveness of his answers, strenuously defended his serve, considerably raising the bar of concentration. Once more he analyzed the situation, studied the difficulties and came out stronger. Also Rublev in the quarterfinals he offered him a nice initial puzzle, but after losing the first set, Novak went over him like a steamroller, without regard or mercy. In short, the prospects are grim: Djokovic seems even stronger than last year and Sinner weaker. If his path to Wimbledon were to stop today, could we really complain something to the best Italian tennis player?
Jannik Sinner will turn 22 on August 16, we said. At his age Djokovic had already won his first Grand Slam in Australia but for the second he had to wait until he was 24. In 2003, Roger Federer lifted the Championship trophy for the first time after beating Andy Roddick in the semifinal and Mark Philippoussis in the final and he too had almost 23 years old. Nadal yes, he started first; he turned 19 during his first Roland Garros, a bit precocious like compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, who won the US Open at the same age. Medvedev reached his first Grand Slam at 25, Thiem at 27; Zverev and Tsitsipas are still waiting, along with a large company. Does it make sense to compare yourself to others?
Perhaps it is a sterile exercise, but it can help give meaning and measure to what is being asked of this boy. The first three are hyperbolic examples but it is also true that once they leave the scene – twenty-year-old tyrants of the Majors – some space will inevitably be created for the others. The impression is that Alcaraz will be the ruler of the new era by detachment, followed by the intruder verve of Holger Rune. For his part, however, Jannik Sinner is getting us used to greatness of a complete, solid, tremendous athlete for almost any tennis player in the world to face. Sometimes we chide him for sloppy service or lapses in concentration, ignoring the absurdity of such expectations. Few tennis players today can match Sinner’s effectiveness, his brutality in response and his still fragile but courageous changes of pace.
Sinner’s is not an exploit; it is not the – abundant – week of life. This was his fifth attempt at a semifinal after having already reached the quarterfinals at each of the Grand Slams. In 2020 he revealed himself in that strange autumnal Roland Garros, atypical in everything except in the name of the winner: and it was Rafael Nadal himself who put the teenager to bed with a grumpy performance of his. In 2022 Jannik came close to reaching the four quarters, only stopped by an injury in the Paris round of 16. In Australia he clearly lost to Tsitsipas; at Wimbledon he suffered Djokovic’s apocalyptic comeback and in New York he stopped just one point from the success against Alcaraz, then champion.
Painful Painful Life Lessons: yet we can’t overlook the fact that every defeat, every elimination, every lost point is pushing Jannik Sinner towards maturity. He built himself up day after day, one centimeter at a time, he fell a hundred times and got up a hundred and one times. We live in a world that picks you up and chews you up and spits you out and then repeats the process over and over again as convenient. We live on social media in the name of immediacy and we are no longer used to patience. It is curious how the art of waiting is taught precisely by a sport which by definition mercilessly divides the winners from the losers. Maybe, then, today’s result against Djokovic isn’t the most important thing, maybe what Jannik Sinner is building over time matters more. And we will see him in the future, when he gets closer and closer to a Grand Slam victory. Indeed, perhaps we are already seeing it.