Jannik Sinner: "I have always exposed myself to difficult conditions"
Jannik Sinner spoke to the ATP about his improvements in recent years - and revealed one of the secrets of his success.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jan 28, 2021, 10:06 am
There are some figures that illustrate the development of the Italian Jannik Sinner. Probably the most apt of them is the number 550. The young South Tyrolean was on this world ranking position exactly two years ago. Today Sinner ranks 36th - and at the end of the 2020 game year he just celebrated his first title on the ATP tour.
The 19-year-old is consequently on everyone's lips and is considered by the majority of experts to be the legal successor to the "Big Three" and the coming number one in the world. Sinner has a very own secret of success, which he already revealed at the beginning of his career, as the Italian explained to the ATP homepage : "I have always exposed myself to difficult conditions. When I was young, I tried futures and I've lost many, many first-round matches. Obviously the other players were a lot better than me. But I stayed there, I trained with them and tried to get better and every day I improved a little. "
Match against Nadal showed many weaknesses
Of course, it was not always easy to travel around the world, to tournaments where everyone else wants to win as well and you are a little weaker than the others. "But you have to find a way to win," said Sinner. A few months later, Sinner was already in a Grand Slam quarter-finals and faced Rafael Nadal in this one. "In this game you saw a lot of things that I had to improve," recalls Sinner. "That is the greatest lesson. You can learn something every day."
So if you are smart, you can learn something every day - regardless of whether you did something well or something bad, explains Sinner. Despite its obvious further development - above all physical improvement - tennis is still a sport in which it is very difficult to make predictions: "I have certainly improved physically, mentally and in other ways, but sometimes you wake up and feel not good on the field and may have to accept that your opponent is playing better than you. When we talk about improvements, I think I'm physically okay. The strokes get stronger too. Maybe I have to make the unforced mistakes a little more improve so that they become less. "
It is quite strange that the daily constitution has such a big influence in tennis, as Sinner emphasizes: "But for me the funny part of tennis is that you wake up and maybe play unbelievably and can win against everyone. Sometimes you play badly and you loses matches that should normally be won. " At Sinner, however, despite his young age, such downward swings are relatively rare - one of the many reasons why such a bright future is promised to him.