“Sometimes mentality is wrong, you get jealous” – Jannik Sinner gives youngsters the mantra for growth of Italian tennis
Jannik Sinner recently told his young compatriots the mantra for the growth of Italian tennis.
Sinner has certainly become the flag bearer of Italian tennis with his on-court heroics in the recent past. In the first month of the 2024 season, he triumphed at the Australian Open and became the first player from Italy to win a Grand Slam title since 1976. Adriano Panatta won the French Open that year.
In November 2023, he brought Italy the first Davis Cup glory since the year 1976, again, with critical contributions from his teammates, including Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Arnaldi, Lorenzo Sonego, and Simone Bolelli. Notably, every team member, except Bolelli, was ranked inside the Top 50 then.
Sinner is currently in Spain for the 2024 Madrid Open and he kicked off his campaign with a 6-0, 6-3 win over fellow Italian Sonego. After the match, he joined Prakash Amritraj at Tennis Channel to talk a little bit about the great state Italian tennis is in at the moment.
"We have great structures in Italy, we have many many tournaments, we have challengers, we can play juniors, we can play ITFs, you know, there are lots of those. Yeah, you can see so many players," he said (at 4:45).
The World No. 2 expressed his excitement for the younger players from his country and advised them to set one target at a time. He said:
"If you watch young players like very young and this is very exciting about this and there’s always one who’s trying to push a little bit the others and you always have to set these small goals. When you reach one goal, try to go on a next one and next one."
Jannik Sinner then told them to not be bitter about a compatriot's success.
"Sometimes the mentality is wrong because you get jealous and being jealous, the sport doesn’t grow. I think it’s nice to see, in my point of view, if after me now someone is playing better than me and is passing me and then the sport is going to get bigger and bigger," the Italian added.
Jannik Sinner: "Hopefully I can inspire as many players as possible"
Jannik Sinner ended his conversation with Prakash Amritraj on Tennis Channel, by voicing his wish to be someone who can encourage others to do great on the court.
"I see it in this way and hopefully I can inspire as many players as possible and that’s it," he said (at 5:53).
Jannik Sinner's next challenge as the first seed in the 2024 Madrid Open men's singles draw is Russia's Pavel Kotov. The two have never faced each other on the court yet.
Kotov has reached the third round with convincing wins over Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Jordan Thompson in the previous matches.