Jannik Sinner (24) will miss this year’s final tournament of the Davis Cup, and with his decision he unleashed a huge wave of criticism in Italy, which is coming at him from all sides. Currently, the second player in the world accepted the criticism of his compatriots, but did not want to comment too much on it.
Just a week ago, Sinner was a celebrated star in Italy. However, at the beginning of this week, his decision to skip the November Davis Cup final tournament on home soil in Bologna, which is very hard for most of the inhabitants of the wine country, came from his side.
“Me and my team decided to do this because the season is very long and I need an extra week to prepare to make it through the Australian summer.” said the owner of four Grand Slam trophies, who won the last two editions of the Davis Cup and each time also reigned at the Australian Open in January.
Perhaps this is also why the Italians consider his explanation insufficient. Some have gone further and accused him of ditching the national team in order to extend his vacation by a week after this season.
Sinner was the main architect of Italy’s triumph in the last two years of the most prestigious men’s team competition. However, he will not help his compatriots in the attack for a hat trick, and this is a significant weakening for the Italians. This will probably be another reason why there is such a huge wave of criticism against the currently second-ranked player in the world.
The native of Innichen was criticized by the legendary Nicola Pietrangeli and the Italian press, including individual journalists. “Why should anyone from Italy support Sinner? He speaks German (that’s right, it’s his native language), lives in Monte Carlo and refuses to play for the national team. Honor to Alcaraz, who plays in the Davis Cup for his native Spain,” wrote journalist Bruno Vespa, who has over 200,000 followers on the X social network alone.
Consumer organization Codacons is even calling for all honors to be stripped from him. It is therefore clear that the Italians very quickly forget how much success Sinner brought them in the last two years, not only in the national team.
Sinner himself did not really want to comment on the countless critical comments, headlines and reports. “I accept all criticism. I have said enough on this matter and have nothing more to add,” he said at a press conference at the ongoing tournament in Vienna, where he will face Alex de Minaur in the semifinals on Saturday.
The Davis Cup final tournament will take place from November 18 to 23 in Bologna, Italy. Czech tennis players will also be in action, who will challenge Spain in the quarter-finals, led by world number one Carlos Alcaraz.
