No 'sin' to be a disruptor: The Jannik Sinner story

There’s no doubt whatsoever that we are currently living in an extremely interesting time of men’s singles professional tennis.

It’s a time when we have the most successful men’s player of all time still playing at a level which sees him win an Olympic gold medal, at the age of 37. It’s a time at which his heir apparent, all of 21 (Carlos Alcaraz), has announced himself to the world, courtesy of some breathtaking skills which most tennis players can only dream of and has begun pushing the most successful of all time at the big tournaments, having already pocketed four Grand Slam titles (winning three of the four Slams) and an Olympic silver medal. But, it’s also a time when neither of these two players occupies the top spot in the men’s singles rankings.

Enter - the third actor in this rather riveting drama that continues to unfold in men’s professional tennis. Enter - the new US Open men’s singles champion - Jannik Sinner.

After his US Open title win , Sinner is now a whopping 4105 rating points ahead of the new World number two - Alexander Zverev.

Forget about the fact that Sinner is the first Italian player ever to own the world number one ranking since the ATP rankings were instituted in August 1973, being seeded ahead of the likes of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, forget about the fact that he is just 23 years old, or that he has won two of the four Slams this year, forget that he has already pocked a total career prize money of over $24 million (in singles), or that he has a win-loss ratio of 245-79, or 16 career singles titles so far. Also forget about the fact that he failed two dope tests in March this year, but was allowed to continue playing because they were ruled to be not due to his ‘fault or negligence’ . Forget about the fact that the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced the results of the tests a day after the high of Sinner winning the Cincinnati Open - a warm-up tournament for the US Open.

Jannik Sinner is so much more than just all of this. He is, in every sense of the word - a disruptor. At a time when the ‘who after Djokovic and Nadal’ was answered with names like Alcaraz, Medvedev and Zverev, Sinner has won two of the four Slams of 2024, stamping his authority on hard court tennis. And he has done that by doing the one thing that every single professional athlete aspires to do - improve, continuously. The signs were there for everyone to see, right from when he first turned professional, in 2018, before going on to win the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2019 and being named the newcomer of the year on the men’s Tour the same year.

2001 Wimbledon champion and Novak Djokovic’s former coach Goran Ivanisevic, when asked about Sinner four years ago, in 2020, had said - “Jannik Sinner, that’s the future….For sure, top-five player, maybe number one. I can’t say that far, but the kid is 18, hits the ball amazingly quick. He is the (real) deal.”

Former India Davis Cupper and Asian Games gold medallist, Somdev Devvarman told me recently - “He (Sinner) has always been a phenom. Right from the time he came on the tour, his ball-striking ability, consistency of how hard he hits the ball, mentality, rapid improvement in big areas of his game, better decision-making - every single aspect that you look at, he has improved in.”

Consider this - At the 2021 Australian Open, Sinner lost in the first round to Dennis Shapovalov in five sets. He then returned to Melbourne Park the next year, in 2022, where he was the 11th seed, and made the quarter-finals, before losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas. In 2023, Sinner ran into Tsitsipas, who was seeded third, again - this time in the fourth round and again couldn’t make his way past the Greek. This year, at the Australian Open, Sinner was seeded fourth. He took care of Andrey Rublev in the quarter-final, then stunned defending champion and top seed, Novak Djokovic, thanks largely to his much-improved baseline game, in four sets before showcasing some incredible skills and nerves of steel to come back from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev in the final to win the summit clash in five sets, and with it his maiden Grand Slam title .

Suddenly, there was another player on the men’s tour, apart from Nadal and Alcaraz, who could not only beat Djokovic in key Slam matches but also go all the way.

But that alone cannot be a metric to determine just how good a player is. Can it? After all, even the best in the world can have an off day. Just ask Djokovic and Alcaraz - both of whom were ousted, well before the Round of 16 even, at the US Open this time. So, apart from his raw skills, what is it that makes experts feel that Sinner is the ‘real deal’? It’s maybe the rather ‘mature’ decisions that he is capable of at a rather young age.

“At the end of last year in Paris (Paris Masters), Sinner finished a match really late - around 2 am or something like that, and he was slated to play the next day and he pulled out of the tournament. He says - ‘it’s the Masters, I know it’s important, but my body is more important and I can’t recover and play and then be ready for the World Tour Finals next week (which he had already qualified for). It’s just not happening, so I am sorry I am pulling out.’ Goes to the World Tour Finals, plays there, gets ready and comes to Melbourne (for the Australian Open, which he won), red hot. It’s decisions like that that impact the next part of the season and puts him in the right space of mind to play the right kind of tennis. That’s a tough decision. When do you see top players pulling out of tournaments, just because their recovery time is not enough? He has just been doing things the right way for a long time and it’s no surprise that he is here,” Somdev further told me.

So, he had the raw skills and a mature head on his shoulders. But Sinner’s rapid improvement has left most tennis experts speechless. And he has done that by making some smart adjustments to his game, along with his team.

The one big area of improvement for Sinner has been his serve. Going into the US Open this time, Sinner was leading the Tour in terms of service games won, which stood at an astonishingly high - 91.3% - for 2024.

Working with one of his coaches, Darren Cahill, who has previously worked with the likes of Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep, Sinner reinvented his serve.

Former American world number one, John Isner, widely renowned to be one of the most lethal servers in the history of the game and the record holder for the maximum number of aces served ever on the Tour (14,470) told ATPTour.com, said: “A lot of people have noticed, myself included, that Sinner has, really since working with Darren Cahill, changed his service motion from platform to pinpoint….His serve looks pretty similar to mine and in my mind, that’s the superior way to serve. So, he obviously stuck with it. It seems like it would be a simple change, but it’s definitely not.”

Sinner’s serve has bailed him out of many a tough situation. Going into the year’s last Grand Slam this year, he had the maximum percentage of second-serve points won (57.5%) and break points saved (72.9%).

Sinner always had a good game, but good is never enough at this level. It’s just something that will help you get there. To be able to win Slams, one has to attain almost machine-like perfection and consistency. It’s the small things that need tweaking. Sinner and his team knew that well.

“We changed a couple of things with the toss of the ball, and also my mental side. It has been different, trying to play sometimes with a bit more rotation, instead of going to hit the ace or all that stuff,” the world number one told ATPTour.com earlier.

What Sinner’s improved serve is of course enabling him to do is to set up the play for the point just the way he wants to. That in turn allows him to dictate the point, making it that much harder for his opponent to break him.

Former British-Canadian world number one, Greg Rusedski told ATPTour.com - “I’ve been super impressed; the whole team has done a fantastic job with him. And it all started with making a change to the serve, the body, transitioning, adding slice and adding things.”

Another standout improvement in Sinner’s game has been his footwork. At the Australian Open this year his ability to run down balls to extend points and overall court coverage was very impressive.

According to the Australian Men’s Health magazine - Sinner is putting in some serious gym and workout time into exercise routines like the ladder drill, ring pull-ups, weighted sledge pulls, medicine ball crossovers etc to become stronger and yet more agile on the court.

Sinner overall has done well in working on his physique, in terms of lean mass, muscle and overall weight. Not too long ago he was considered to be way too skinny. He is around 6 feet 2 inches tall and you have to have a certain amount of muscle to be able to carry off that large frame impressively and, in professional sport, - to make it work to your advantage.

In 2022, a tennis fan had this to say on a tennis forum - “Sinner is better than 90% of the top 100, and must be skinnier than 98% of the top 100.”

After his first Grand Slam-level loss this year (French Open semi-finals to Alcaraz in 5 sets), Sinner was urged to put on more muscle.

Sinner always had powerful groundstrokes, but he needed to also bring in a lot more variation in his shots via spins, slices etc. And that is something that his head coach, Simone Vagnozzi, has worked on a lot since joining his coaching team in 2022. Looking back, the decision to bring in Vagnozzi in fact was also a masterstroke and it required Sinner to take a very tough call. It was another instance that those who track the professional game closely cite when they assess Sinner’s maturity which is clearly way beyond his young years.

“When he split with (Riccardo) Piatti (long-time coach), there was a cloud of doubt about whether that was the right decision. Piatti is the one who had worked with him since he (Sinner) was 14, but Sinner felt that he needed a change. He got that change - he got another Italian - Simone Vagnozzi, who is not that heralded as Piatti, former player, recently off-Tour. And that partnership, along with (Darren) Cahill (coach) and others was something that worked. (It was) something that he needed, something that worked, something that he was comfortable with. When a company does well, you have to credit the CEO - that he or she has made the right decisions, put the right people in the right positions, had a vision for exactly how he or she wanted to improve and got the right people involved. So, I think that is unbelievable maturity for someone that age…. So, he (Sinner) has put himself in a great position, time after time (that) he has had to take tough decisions,” Somdev Devvarman told me during a chat.

Another aspect of his game that Sinner had to consciously work on was the mental side of things. By his own admission, he was struggling to close out matches because of his nerves. Instead of working with a full-time mental professional, Sinner decided to partner with Formula Medicine - a mental training programme designed in Italy, which is also used by some Formula One drivers. According to reports, the programme is designed for a ‘computer to calculate a player’s brain usage during exercises.’

All of this put together began to work wonders for the lanky Italian. From 2022 to 2023, Sinner climbed from World Number 15 to World Number 4. In June this year, he rose to the numero uno spot in the ATP singles rankings. In 2021 he got to play in the ATP Tour Finals as an alternate, the next year he went in as the fourth seed, behind only Djokovic, Alcaraz and Medvedev.

Before the US Open men’s final this year, Somdev told me - “He (Sinner) is 23, he is world number one, he has already won a major (Grand Slam - Australian Open 2024) and it feels like he has been around for six years….(after Djokovic retires) I think in the men’s draw there will be two stand-out players - Sinner and Alcaraz.”

Sinner had been hit by a few injuries earlier, but perhaps nothing shook him as hard as news of his two failed dope tests. He was cleared of any intentional wrongdoing by the powers that be, but that didn’t stop the tennis world from being rather divided over whether not suspending him was the right call. And in the middle of all of this, he had to stay focussed to play the last Slam of the year, where he was the top seed.

Sinner went on record to say - “It has been a very tough moment for me and my team.”

The positive tests led to Sinner firing two members of his support staff - his fitness trainer and his physiotherapist before the US Open - because of the anabolic steroids that had inadvertently entered his system.

Sinner had tested positive for clostebol, a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid. It can be used as a performance-enhancing drug. His defence was that his former physical trainer - Umberto Ferrara - bought an over-the-counter spray called trofodermin, which is used to treat cuts and scrapes, in Italy and gave it to his former physiotherapist - Giacomo Naldi - who used the spray for a cut on a finger of his. Naldi then gave Sinner a massage, with no gloves on, and that is how trace amounts of clostebol, which is found in trofodermin, entered his system.

Though the Trofodermin spray comes with a ‘Doping’ warning printed on it, Sinner’s lawyer, who represents athletes who are facing doping charges, said it’s easy to miss the warning sometimes.

Fontana was quoted by ABC News as saying - “….but with Trofodermin, the mark (warning) is only on the box and not the product itself….So if a family member purchases the drug and throws away the box, there’s a danger that the warning isn’t seen.”

The bottom line here is that Sinner always maintained his innocence, calling the incident a “mistake” and he was cleared of any intentional wrongdoing. But that of course didn’t stop the tennis fraternity from being divided over especially the suspension rules. Sinner himself though found support from some of the biggest names.

Novak Djokovic said - “There is a lot of issues in the system. We see a lack of standardised and clear protocols. I can understand the sentiments of a lot of players that are questioning whether they are treated the same.”

Roger Federer opined - “I think we all trust pretty much that Jannik didn’t do anything, but the inconsistency potentially that he didn’t have to sit out while they weren’t 100 percent sure what was going on, I think that’s the question here that needs to be answered.”

Rafael Nadal told Spanish TV ‘El Hormiguero’ - “I know Sinner, I don’t believe that Sinner has ever wanted to dope….I don’t think we have to like it only when it is resolved in the way we think. In the end, justice is justice and I believe in justice.”

Frances Tiafoe, who Sinner beat in the Cincinnati Open final, which is a tune-up tournament for the US Open said - “He’s an incredible player, and, you know, (governing) bodies made a decision. They went and did that; he’s cleared to play. That’s pretty much what I have to say about it.”

The crowd at Flushing Meadows was largely supportive too. And that must have been a big shot in the arm for the young man.

But, fighting the demons of failed dope tests, while playing at the highest level, in a tournament where he was the top seed, and then the big favourite to win once Djokovic and Alcaraz exited - it wasn’t an easy two weeks, to say the least for Jannik Sinner. But the 23-year-old passed every test with flying colours.

In a way, he saved his best for last perhaps, because the final is always the one match where the nerves play the biggest role - especially for someone who was looking for his second Grand Slam title - both for his career and for the year.

Also, the US Open final always draws a whole gamut of celebrities. This year’s clash was no different, with the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bon Jovi, Eddie Redmayne, Anna Wintour, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Liev Schreiber, Noah Lyles, Seal, Jon Hamm and others in attendance.

En route to the title at Flushing Meadows this time, Sinner dropped only two sets. In the final, he beat crowd favourite Taylor Fritz in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 (Sinner leads the head-to-head 2-1 now).

One little-known fact about Sinner is that he was massively into skiing as a child and in fact was one of the top-level junior skiers in Italy, winning a national championship in the giant slalom (alpine skiing) competitive discipline when he was just eight. At 13 he decided to focus full-time on tennis.

Skiing’s loss became tennis’ gain. And the sport and its fans have realised that this lanky young 23-year-old Italian will be a leading actor in the drama that will unfold in men’s singles tennis after Djokovic bids adieu.

After his US Open title win, Sinner, while thanking his team, dedicated the title to his aunt, who is seriously ill, saying - “This title for me means so much; the last period of my career was not easy. There is my team who supports me every day, the people who are close to me….I love tennis, I practise a lot for these kind of stages, but off the court there is a life. I would like to dedicate this title to my aunt who is really not feeling well health wise. I don’t know how much I’ll still have her in my life. It’s so nice I can still share a positive moment with her.”

Sinner is also incidentally the first man in 47 years to win his first two Grand Slam titles in the same year.

This is one disruption that is no ‘sin’.