Sinner: from skis to racket and to meet Nadal

Jannik Sinner (San Candido, 19 years old), Rafa Nadal's debutant rival this Tuesday in the Roland Garros quarterfinals, was the fruit of Siglinde and Hanspeter's love affair, administrators of the Fondo Valle refuge, in Val Fiscalina (Sesto), a small alpine valley near Austria where German is spoken and skiing is practiced. Hence, as a child, Jannik entered this sport with very good results (national champion) in giant slalom between 8 and 12. At that time, he combined it with tennis, because his father liked it, and from the age of 13 he opted for the specialty that already brings him success.

At that early age left home to be trained by Ricardo Piatti and Massimo Sartori in Bordighera, not too far from home, northwestern Italy. With Roger Federer as great Referrer, Sinner grew and progressed until his breakthrough last year as the youngest champion of the NextGen ATP Finals and was named Revelation Player of 2019. Apart from tennis, he likes to play football and is a fan of Milan.

The redhead enjoy, like a good Italian, with pizza, although he also loves sushi, candies and chocolate. He says that his greatest quality is tranquility. He plays with the forehand and backhand, his best shot, he hits it with two hands. Although he prefers to play hard court, he has revealed himself as a guaranteed tennis player on clay. He has already beaten Tsitsipas, Monfils, Paire and Goffin, among others. On clay his mark is now 10-6.