Javier Sanchez

Updated Sunday, January 28, 2024-23:35

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We are at 1,540 meters of altitude and it is snowing outside, it is snowing, half a meter of snow. In the Sesto Dolomites, between Italy and Austria, a stone's throw from the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo, a refuge, the Rifugio Fondovalle, surprises with its good cuisine and, above all, its decoration. Despite the surroundings, there are no photos of mountaineers, skiers, or ice hockey players on the walls: there are photos of a tennis player. With her short-sleeved shirt and his racket, on cement or grass, everything very far away, very strange. But it has an explanation. The owner and cook of the place is

Hanspeter Sinner

and the administrator and person in charge of the dining room is

Siglinde Sinner

, the father and mother of

Jannik Sinner

, since this Sunday winner of a Grand Slam, the Australian Open.

The simplicity and rawness of life in a shelter explains the character of the leader of the new generation of tennis along with Carlos Alcaraz. He has nothing of the Italian archetype: he is neither expressive nor gesticulating, quite the opposite. In fact, at the trophy ceremony at Rod Laver Arena you couldn't tell if he was very excited or very little. After coming back from

two sets down against

Daniil Medvedev and winning 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3, he was very composed.

«I wish all children could have my parents because they always let me choose, even when I was very little. I played other sports and they never pressured me. I hope that freedom is a reality for all children," she proclaimed in her only, heartfelt message, beyond thanks to the team and sponsors. Sinner's relationship with tennis was, indeed, very free.

Emancipation at 13

Until he was 12, his main sport was skiing, becoming the Italian champion in the under-8 giant slalom and the under-12 runner-up, and he only picked up the racket in the summer while waiting for the snow to arrive. Today when asked for a reference he points to Roger Federer, but his childhood idol was actually the skier Bode Miller and he took a while to follow the ATP circuit. «Until I was 12 or 13 years old, I saw very few games, to be honest. Some

Andreas Seppi

final

because he is from the same region of Italy as me and little else," he recently acknowledged, who later devoted himself to tennis like no one else. «I chose tennis because I like to play. Skiing is a single descent, if you make a mistake everything is over. In tennis you can fail and win », he recalled. At 13 years old, with the help of his parents. Sinner descended from the mountains, crossed the country from east to west and settled at the Piatti Tennis Center in Bordighera, on the Italian Riviera, next to Monaco and France.

There, where Novak Djokovic

and

Richard Gasquet

also learned

, a linear progression began that reached its zenith this Sunday. In 2019, his first year as a professional, he won the Next Gen title and entered the Top 100, in 2020 he lifted his first ATP title, in 2021 he reached the Top 10 and at the end of 2023 he became unstoppable. With a more consistent change in his mentality, he took the Canadian Masters 1000 and, since then, has barely lost. He even gave the Davis Cup to Italy, a miracle.

His relationship with Alcaraz

At 22 years old, with his victory at the Australian Open he showed that he is prepared to hold more big tournaments. In the twilight of the best generation of tennis, the Big Three, Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, Sinner appears as a replacement alongside Alcaraz. "I'm happy for you, you deserve it more than anyone," the Spaniard wrote yesterday in X as part of the friendship that both have shared for a long time.

When Sinner was 17 years old and Alcaraz was 15, they faced each other in Villena in the Ferrero Challenger and, after the surprise of the youngest's victory, they began a relationship. As professionals they have faced each other seven times, with a balance of 4-3 for the Italian, but there will be more, many more: the future is eternal. Alcaraz reached the top before and his generational adversary, Sinner, the boy from the shelter, the teenage skier, the calm Grand Slam champion, has been at his side since this Sunday.