Not since 1976, when the great Adriana Panatta became the first Italian to win a Grand Slam title, has tennis in Italy received such popularity and enthusiasm. This, of course, is due to the meteoric rise of Jannik Sinner, the first Italian to become No. 1 in the world ATP rankings and, as of Sunday, September 8th, the winner of the U.S. Open and the ender of a nearly 50 year long drought of Men’s Grand Slam titles since Panatta was victorious at the Australian Open.
Sinner was born on August 16th, 2001 and raised in South Tyrol in Northern Italy at a ski resort, and may have become a competitive skiier (winning a national championship in Giant Slalom in 2008) rather than the future of Italian tennis had his father not urged him back into the sport at age seven. Under the tutelage of the legendary Ricardo Piatti, who worked with Novak Djokovic early in his career and wisely predicted his eventual achievement of World No. 1, Sinner became the first player born in the 2000’s to enter the ATP top 10 and the first Italian player to win a Challenger title. He is currently 5-4 with tennis’ other prodigy, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner is truly a product of Italian bred experience, grit, and ingenuity. Rather than enlisting a sports psychologist, which is traditional for elite athletes, Sinner participates in Formula Medicine, an Italian led mental training program which originally focused on preparing Formula One drivers for competition. Formula Medicine consists of hundreds of rapid fire tests designed to reduce the brain’s emotional activity and, thus, stress response, when faced with mistakes, regrets, negative thoughts, or defeats. This allows the athlete to insulate themselves against self sabotage in the midst of competition, and, given the potential of singles tennis matches to evolve into grueling endurance duels, has been instrumental in Sinner’s success at the highest level.
Sinner’s success invokes both a history of Italian tennis greatness and revives that fierce spirit for the new generation. “The Sinner Effect” has already been responsible for an explosion of tennis appreciation in Italy and has inspired other Italian tennis players, like Jasmine Paolini, forward in their path towards greatness. Not since the golden age of the 1970’s, says renowned tennis coach Paolo Bertucci, has Italian tennis reached the same fever pitch across the nation.
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