"Jannik Sinner does not know fear, which grips many other tennis players" - Top Italian coach
Top Italian coach Massimo Sartori, who has worked with former top 20 players like Andreas Seppi and Marco Cecchinato in the past, recently claimed that Jannik Sinner is fearless in his outlook towards tennis. Sartori also marveled at how the 19-year-old is always open to making changes in his game.
Speaking to an Italian sports daily, Sartori asserted that Jannik Sinner has a great capacity for making adjustments to reach his goals, even if it makes him diverge from his original plan of action.
"He has this extraordinary ability to learn, to create improvement even at the cost of changing (his) direction along the way," Massimo Sartori said in praise of Jannik Sinner.
The Italian coach went on to claim that Sinner's flexible attitude towards his game gives him a significant advantage over the rest of the pro tour.
"He is not a conservative, and if you propose to change something, he understands and grasps," Sartori said. "In addition, Jannik does not know fear, which instead grips many other tennis players."
Jannik Sinner's technical aptitude allows him to be strong even on clay: Massimo Sartori
During the interview, Massimo Sartori also spoke about Jannik Sinner's propensity for playing on clay. Sartori insisted that the young Italian has both the tactical acumen and the technical skill to become a force on the slow surface.
"It is a surface that requires more complex tennis on a tactical and technical level than concrete," Sartori said. "Jannik already demonstrated this last year in Rome and Paris. It is precisely his technical aptitude that allows him to be strong even on dirt."
While Jannik Sinner has achieved his best results on hardcourt, he has shown glimpses of his claycourt ability too. In his first Roland Garros appearance last year, Sinner took down top players like Alexander Zverev and David Goffin before losing to the 'King of Clay' Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.
Sartori delved deeper into Sinner's technique and pointed out that the 19-year-old was good at getting underneath the ball. That, Sartori believes, allows Sinner to hit deep and pacy groundstrokes and maintain the initiative in longer exchanges.
"He is one who crosses the ball with his hands, in the sense that when he hits he is always under the ball, he is in control and can move it as he likes," Sartori said. "On clay, where compared to concrete you have to know how to push the ball, this feature makes the difference."
At the end of the interview Sartori predicted that Sinner, who reached a career-high ATP ranking of No. 23 this week, will finish the season close to the top 10. He also expects the teenager to feature at the ATP Finals this year, either as a direct qualifier or an alternate.