Rome (AFP)

Already qualified for the semifinals of Milan's Next Gen, the Under 21 Tennis Masters, the Italian Jannik Sinner, is making an extraordinary season at home, which has seen him win 500 places in a few months to become the youngest member of the current Top 100.

The young man, ranked 95th at ATP, has no time to lose. It is by invitation that he participates in Next Gen, he is 18 years and two months the earliest participants, but he has already reversed everything.

Winner of the American Frances Tiafoe (47th world) on Tuesday, he easily dominated on Wednesday the Swede Mikael Ymer (N.74) to ensure, already, a place in the last square from Friday.

With his face as a real kid, his big smile and his freckles, the Italian looks like a nice teenager. But on the court, he has been martyring since February players much more expert than him.

While he started the year around the 550th place and had no point ATP there is little more than 18 months, Sinner really exploded in April with a first victory on the grand circuit in Budapest.

Never through the Juniors box, he had previously made his way into the Futures and Challenger tournaments, with a title in February in Bergamo.

After Budapest, he spent a Masters 1000 tour in Rome, where he got the blessing of Roger Federer, who had called him a sparring partner. "I think we can expect great things," predicted the master.

The first "big things" came at the end of the season, with victories against Gael Monfils and Tafoe, in Antwerp, where Sinner became the youngest semifinalist on the big circuit since Borna Coric in 2014.

With a new tour in Vienna, Sinner joined the Top 100 at 18 years and two months, about the age that Federer and Djokovic had when they did the same.

- The end of skiing -

"It's been an important season for me, my level of play has improved and so has my ranking, but the road is long to get where I want to go," said the Italian before the start of Next Gen. Where he wants to arrive? "Win Grand Slams", the US Open preferably, and "be N.1 World".

"The real Sinner, we will see in four years.He remains a player in construction", tempered in the Corriere dello Sport his coach Riccardo Piatti, former coach of Ljubicic, Gasquet, Raonic or Djokovic, passed by his academy when he had 17 years.

The Italian is also aware of this and recognizes that he has "great margins of progress in the service and forehand", as well as in the management of trade, he who unlike the majority of Italians was more trained on fast surfaces than on clay.

His strong blow is however the reverse, valued by his speed of movement, his application to hit the ball early and the confidence with which he plays for a few months.

His spectacular progress recorded this year in any case legitimate choice made five years ago, when he gave up skiing to devote himself entirely to tennis and join Piatti in Bordighera, in Liguria (north-west).

Born in the Alto Adige, in the north of Italy, a few kilometers from Austria, Sinner was in fact more suited to winter sports. But, "skiing, I did not have fun", he explained to the Gazzetta dello Sport.

"I was looking at the slopes from the starting gate and I was a bit scared, skiing is all or nothing, and you can always find a new opportunity in tennis." For now, he grabs them all.

© 2019 AFP