“The younger guys in Italy are improving very much. I hope I can give them a little bit of inspiration,” 18-year old Jannik Sinner declared following his victory in Milan at the Next Gen ATP Finals. The read-headed teen is the first Italian to win the Next Gen ATP Finals, featuring the world’s top 21-and-under singles of the ATP Tour season.
Playing against Swede Mikael Ymer, Sinner scored a neat 4-0, 4-2, 4-1 win. He is rightly proud to set an example for the new generation of young Italian players. Last February he was barely No. 551 in the ATP Rankings . Whoever could imagine what this kid was going to achieve in a few months would have made a dash for Iowa gambling to put some serious money on him.
The racket was really a destiny for young Jannick: he was three years old when he first picked one up. Tennis was forgotten for a while in favour of skiing and football, but at ten years of age his father took him to the courts once more. This time there was no going back. Three years later jannick was to completely commit to tennis.
In 2018, Skinner was a mere spectator at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, though he was competing in the Red Bull Next Gen Open in the same city. His luck was going to turn in a matter of a few months. His first victory of an ATP Challenger singles title came along in Bergamo in February 2019. He was the first player born in 2001 to qualify fr a Challenger final
After that, things went fast. Several ITF Futures title in Italy followed, then, in April, tue qualification for his first ATP tournament, the Hungarian Open. And the first victory in the same, against Mate Valkusz. After that, Jannick reached his second ATP Challenger final in Ostrava, though he lost to Kamil Majchrzak.
May 2019 brought him his first victory in a ATP Masters tournament, in Rome, where he defeated Steve Johnson, USA. Sinner’s second ATP Challenger singles title followed suit in August, in Lexington. Later in the month he scored a triple victory at the US Open and thus won the qualification for his first Grand Slam.
And then came October and the wild card for the European Open. Jannick Sinner is now the youngest tennis player in the last 5 years who made it to the semifinal of a single males ATP tournament. A victory against Gael Monfils was his first marking a success over a top 50 player. One more win – the opening match of the Vienna Open for which Jannick received another wild card in October – projected him into the Olympus of the top 100.
The crowning of this whirlwind ascent was the announcement that Jannick Sinner was the Italian wild card at the Milan event for the NextGen ATP Finals. Two more victories on Nov. 5th and 6th, qualification for the semi-finals… will Jannick’s triumphal march take him straight to the top?
