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Next page, Sinner celebrates match point in the semifinal singles
Left, Jannik Sinner during the Davis Cup Final match against

Alex De Minaur. ©Clive Brunskill/Getty Images for ITF

©Cameron Spencer/Getty Images match against Novak Djokovic during the 2024 Australian Open.

His standard of comparison are the results of Federer, he cannot ask too much of his physique. He stopped for
Nadal and Djokovic, the ‘cannibals’ of the 2000s. But at a a rest, skipping a Davis Cup round and not caring about
certain point this was no longer enough for him: in 2022, he sterile controversies; he came back and added the ATP
loses outright in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Finals final lost to Djokovic, the Davis Cup triumph beating
against Stefanos Tsitsipas and announces to the press Djokovic, the first Slam in Australia annihilating Djokovic.
“something has to change here.” Namely his coach. The year 2024 is ‘Sinnermania’, Sinner conquers
It takes lucidity, at only 20 years of age, to understand the top of the ranking – the first Italian to do so – and
that sport at a high level is not about emotions but about wins 41 matches out of 44 in the first six months, with
work. Away with Piatti, there goes Simone Vagnozzi and the arrival of his new girlfriend Anna Kalinskaya and the
then the super coach Darren Cahill: time will prove that the inevitable gossip dismissed as if it were a 200 km/h report:
choice was a winning one, although no one will ever have “Yes, we are together, I won’t talk about it anymore.
proof that it would not have ended up like that anyway. Need anything else?”.
In short: as the ‘Carota boys’ multiply in the stands, Then comes Wimbledon, he stumbles with a virus
Jannik Sinner becomes a world phenomenon. Even when before the quarter-finals, continues to fights against
his journey comes to a halt after a defeat, because in tennis Medvedev until the fifth set, but exits the tournament he
“it is when you lose that you learn something that will lead to most wanted to win: “I wasn’t well, but that’s no excuse. I’m
victory.” He drops out in the second round of Roland Garros the one who has to figure out what I didn’t handle the best.
2023 (“I wasn’t enjoying myself on the court, I have to I will need to know for next time.”
understand why”), takes his time, another disappointment Yes, it is not fiction, and it is no coincidence that Jannik
in the US Open final against Alcaraz, and he realizes that Sinner was born in San Candido.

74 Portrait Protagonist