Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner (born August 16, 2001, San Candido, Italy) is an Italian tennis player who is a leading star in the generation of players rising in the wake of the indomitable Big Three (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal). In 2024 Sinner won his first majors, at the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, and attained the number one ranking on the men’s ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tour.

Childhood

Sinner grew up in the northernmost part of Italy, not far from the Austrian border, in a high mountainous region with a mixed Italian and German population. He spoke German at home, living first in the small town of San Candido, also known as Innichen, and later in nearby Sesto (Sexten), both of which abut the snowy Dolomites. His parents, Johann and Siglinde Sinner, worked in the local hospitality industry, catering to vacationing skiers and hikers. Jannik Sinner took up tennis at age 7, but for many years he was equally interested in football (soccer) and, especially, skiing; at 12 he was among Italy’s top giant slalom racers for his age group. Shortly thereafter he switched his focus entirely to tennis, and about age 13 he left home to live and train at a tennis academy in Bordighera, on the Italian Riviera near Monaco.

Steady rise in professional tennis

Unlike many other players who later entered the elite ranks of tennis, Sinner opted not to enter any grand slam junior tournaments during his junior career and instead competed in lower-tier competitions. So he was relatively unknown when in 2018 he joined the ATP tour. Nevertheless, he showed his potential quickly, winning three tournaments in his second year as a pro and finishing 2019 ranked in the top 100. The following year he had his best result yet at a major tournament when he reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, where he lost to Nadal in three sets.

Sinner won four ATP titles in 2021 and advanced to the round of 16 in both the French Open and the U.S. Open. He also gained notice for making it to the final of the Miami Open, becoming, at 19, the youngest finalist in a Masters 1000 tournament (a competition considered to be just behind the ATP Finals and the four grand slams in prestige) since Nadal in 2005. In 2022 Sinner changed his coaching and fitness staff, later citing the need to introduce variety to his groundstroke-dependent game and add bulk to his lanky frame. That overhaul showed results, as he made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. In both cases, he lost hard-fought five-set matches to the eventual tournament champions, Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, respectively.

For most of 2023 Sinner performed well, winning four tournaments and advancing to the semifinals at Wimbledon. But he seemed to break through to another level in the last few months of the year. At the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, in November, Sinner beat Djokovic for the first time, after losing in their three previous meetings. Later that month Sinner again beat Djokovic, en route to helping Italy win its first Davis Cup since 1976.

Sinner carried that momentum into 2024, and in January he reached his first major final, at the Australian Open. There he lost the first two sets to Daniil Medvedev before storming back to win, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3. The victory made him the third Italian man to win a major. Following a victory at the Miami Open in March and several other strong finishes, Sinner was declared the number one ranking men’s player on June 10. He was set to compete for Italy in both singles and doubles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but withdrew from competition because of an illness.

In August the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), professional tennis’s designated anti-doping organization, announced that Sinner’s blood samples from March 2024 had twice tested positive for a prohibited anabolic steroid. Sinner argued that he had been inadvertently exposed to the substance by a member of his fitness staff, an explanation that the ITIA accepted, and it cleared Sinner of any wrongdoing. The belated revelation of the investigation and the ITIA’s ruling sparked controversy in the broader tennis world, and several players complained that Sinner had received overly lenient treatment because of his stature as a rising star in the sport. Sinner continued to maintain that it had been an innocent mistake and fired two members of his staff.

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Sinner’s first competition after the news about his positive blood test broke was the U.S. Open. While he continued to face questions from reporters about the doping case, his on-court performance was focused, and he lost only two sets during the tournament en route to winning his second major of the year. He was only the third male tennis player since 1968 to have his first two major wins occur in the same calendar year.

Personality

The 6-foot 2-inch- (1.88-meter-) tall Sinner is known for his affability and floppy orange curls, the latter inspiring some of his fans to attend his matches wearing carrot costumes. Singles tennis is a psychologically demanding sport, and Sinner has shown notable poise during long tense matches, gaining an edge by staying more even-keeled than his opponents. In 2024 he told Vogue in an interview that he relishes this aspect of the game: “This pressure, you have to take it in a positive way. You have to be kind with the pressure. You have to make friendship. If you hate this pressure, it’s the wrong sport for you, no?”