Jannik Sinner: “I have always been calm, the mind is the only thing that can be controlled”

Two weeks after winning the Australian Open and lifting the first major in a career that looks fabulous, Jannik Sinner (San Cándido, Italy; 22 years old) is smiling on the other side of the screen and answers a small selection of media international, including EL PAÍS.

The messy hairstyle and reddish hair give him a casual air that has nothing to do with that of that ice competitor who he seems not to feel or suffer, who rallies like an automaton and who grows larger as the exchange gains intensity.

When he puts on the cap, the young Italian transforms.

“Well, when I was six or seven years old I was angry, yes, but I would say not very much.

In general, I have always tried to be calm and I have been like that for a long time," he answers in the course of a conversation in which he exhibits the same poise that has guided him to the elite of tennis, where he already wars face to face against the others. two references of the moment, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

To get there, Sinner has completed an unusual route.

He grew up playing soccer and, above all, descending on the dolomite slopes of his region, next to the border with Austria.

He became a national ski champion at the age of eight, but preferred the racket.

“I think that has helped me achieve good body balance and also when sliding, but it is very different.

The fear you feel in skiing is different, because when you throw yourself down anything can happen to you, and tennis is not that dangerous,” he says.

He, too, did not choose the most common route to access the elite circuit.

He dispensed with the middle ladder and dove straight into professionalism.

“I have always liked to face rivals who are better than me, because I feel that is the best way to test myself and learn new things.

I played some junior tournaments when I was 15 or 16, but then I started in the

futures

[along with the

challengers

, the prelude to the ATP circuit].

Being among the five or ten best in the junior

ranking

was not important to me;

The important thing was to try to overcome those difficult moments on a track,” he reasons.

More information

Sinner explodes in Australia at the expense of the molten Medvedev

The day-to-day life in his parents' restaurant also contributed to forging a practically unchanged mentality.

An emotional stability that reminds his main coach, Darren Cahill, of how the Swedes Björn Borg and Mats Wilander handled delicate moments.

“Obviously, sometimes I get angry because I feel tired, but I usually control my head well.

It's something I feel pretty confident about.

I think I've made a leap in this sense in the last two years, especially last season, to understand myself a little better.

At the end of the day, the mind is the only thing you can control,” he continues, aware that the last few months and, especially, the success achieved in Australia, have placed him in the foreground and, therefore, the story will change to from now on.

Sinner, during training in Rotterdam. ROBIN UTRECHT (EFE)

If last year was a waterproof one-on-one between Djokovic and Alcaraz, the current one offers a suggestive alternative that was immediately noticed this season, in Melbourne.

There, a recital.

A real walk.

Another

ko

against the Serbian, the third in less than three months.

"Yes of course.

I feel like they respect me more now, but at the same time everything is different, because they know me much better and they know what my weak points are.

I have to be prepared for it and that is why I train myself to react to this situation, which is new.

The others already know how I play.

In that sense, before I was little known, but now everyone, or at least the majority, will have nothing to lose against me, and it is something different because my rivals will play with less pressure,” he anticipates.

In any case, Sinner - now back, present at the Rotterdam tournament these days - assures that the Australian knock or the growing fame does not change his plan at all.

“There is always pressure, but I put the biggest pressure on myself;

The rest is not something that affects me,” says the world number four.

“Reach one?

Yes, but there are still three big ones ahead and I would like to do better than last year.

At Wimbledon I made the semi-finals and it won't be easy to improve that;

at Roland Garros I reached the second round;

and at the US Open I reached the round of 16.

One of the goals is to do better in those tournaments.

But I'm going step by step.

To be one you must first go through two, and previously through three.

We will see what he can do this year,” he adds with the humility that characterizes him.

Sinner poses with the Australian trophy on January 31 at The Coliseum. Giampiero Sposito (Getty Images)

It is said that he is a very un-Italian Italian, or that he does not respond to the prototype of an Italian.

Content, white and cautious, silent and sober in action, he says that he only took a couple of days off after the Australian summit and that when he went to Rome to be received by President Giorgia Meloni, he got up early to strengthen his physique in the gym.

“Now there is more attention on me, but nothing has changed,” he emphasizes in English, a language he speaks along with German.

“All we know is that I have to improve if I want to achieve the following goals,” he continues, demanding “to be a more complete player” and predicting a beautiful future in which he, Alcaraz (20 years old) and the Danish Holger Rune (20 ) are called to take the reins of their sport if some rebel does not join.

“Each one has a different style of play and we are also different mentally, and that is a very good thing,” he says, while assuming the parallels with Djokovic.

“Yes, I think my tennis is similar to Novak's.

We both played well from deep, but we also tried to go to the net and slid in a similar way.

I feel lucky to have met him, Federer and Nadal, although Roger is unfortunately no longer here.

I have tried to observe everything they do inside and outside the locker room to learn,” he continues before answering the final question, whether he will go as far as is presumed: “Ugh, it is difficult to say where I will be in a decade, but hopefully I can look back and say that I have been able to enjoy every moment.

The important thing now is that I have a group of good people behind me, who I can trust.

What may happen in the future cannot be known, but it is valuable to have the right people around you, to walk the path together.

"That's what it's about."

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