ANPJannik Sinner
NOS Sport•maandag, 10:34
Franklin Stoker
will follow the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam
Franklin Stoker
will follow the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam
Jannik Sinner won’t change anytime soon. The 22-year-old Italian is the big man at the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam this week, but he is averse to star allure. After the flood of praise and accolades for his Australian Open title in January, the tennis player from South Tyrol now wants to be back on the court.
Sinner has had to deal with it in recent weeks after his success in Melbourne. He visited the Italian president and prime minister in Rome, did an extensive photo shoot in the Colosseum and, to top it all off, he received an invitation to the Sanremo festival. But for the latter, Sinner kindly thanked him.
The final of the iconic Italian music festival was last Saturday, but then the tennis player was already training in Rotterdam Ahoy with, among others, Tallon Greekpoor and Jesper de Jong.
Tennis is a priority
“I said ‘no’ to a lot of things because picking up the training was the top priority,” Sinner said. “I had a few days off and then I just started training again. That’s the most important thing.”
Sinner chose tennis over skiing: ‘Then you can’t hurt yourself’
The calm way in which Sinner tells his story matches his subdued character. He was born in the modest mountain village of San Candido in northern Italy, near the border with Austria. A region where mainly skiers and biathletes come from, but tennis players? Sinner appears to be the big exception, although he remains a huge ski enthusiast.
The area in the Italian Dolomites is known for its hard workers. “If you have to be on time, you are on time. Or even a little earlier. We are like a Swiss watch. I think I am also a hard worker. If I have to be at the gym at 5 p.m., then I am there also at 5 p.m.,” says Sinner.
Sinner currently lives in Monte Carlo, but proudly talks about the region he comes from. “It is a very quiet, safe and clean part of Italy. The people are very quiet there. The further south you go in Italy, the more chaotic it becomes,” Sinner smiles when asked about his roots.
He also talks a lot about his skiing background. Sinner not only grew up with a tennis racket, he was also very skilled on skis in slalom and giant slalom in his youth. From the ages of eight to twelfth, he even belonged to the national top in his age category. It wasn’t until the age of thirteen that Sinner fully focused on tennis.
“An injury is a possibility with skiing, I found that difficult. You don’t have that with tennis,” he explains.
ANPJannik Sinner during a training with Tallon Greekpoor in Ahoy
Sinner still goes skiing when he can. For example, he wanted to explore the slopes with legendary former skier Alberto Tomba around Christmas, although that appointment was canceled at the last minute.
The person Sinner does have an appointment with is Botic van de Zandschulp. The two meet each other this week in the first round of the ABN Amro Open. The Dutchman also met the Italian in January in the opening round of the Australian Open.
Van de Zandschulp again
Sinner won in straight sets in Melbourne. “We are now playing indoors, so the circumstances are very different,” the Italian remains modest. “I have a lot of respect for Botic, he is a great player. The crowd will also get behind him, so I hope for a nice atmosphere.”
ABN Amro Open at NOS
From Monday to Friday you can tune in every evening at 7:30 PM for the first evening match of the day, which can be seen live on NOS.nl and in the NOS app. In addition, all matches of Dutch tennis players can be followed directly.
The semi-finals and final (Sunday, 3:30 PM) can also be seen live at the weekend.
