Jannik Sinner has had to endure a lot in the past few days. © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / ELSA
Jannik Sinner has not played a match since September 5th and the round of 16 defeat at the US Open. Nevertheless, things have been anything but quiet for South Tyrol’s tennis star in the past three weeks. A real campaign was launched against him.
26. September 2023
From: det
Jannik Sinner is the greatest tennis talent Italy has produced in recent memory. At the age of 22, he has already won a Masters tournament, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and is currently the seventh best player on the planet. In short: The young star from Sexten has everything he needs to have a decisive influence on the tennis era in the coming years. You should actually be happy to have a player like that.
And yet, in the last few days, Sinner has been exposed to a media campaign initiated and run by Italy’s largest sports newspaper, the Gazzetta dello Sport. The “offense”: Sinner canceled his participation in the preliminary round of the Davis Cup, the most important event for the national tennis team. Certainly a questionable decision that has sparked much debate in a proud nation like Italy. For most people – including Italy’s Davis Cup captain Filippo Volandri – things quickly went away. But not for the Gazzetta dello Sport, which showered Sinner with criticism on a daily basis.
Sinner is called a sinner
The climax was reached last Saturday with the appearance of the weekly magazine Sportweek, published by the Gazzetta dello Sport. Sinner adorns the front page, there is talk of a “national case”, the Sesto native is even referred to in articles as a “peccatore”, or sinner. Words were suggested to him with which he should apologize (“I’m sorry, I wasn’t as up to speed as I should have been”) and also suggested that he take the example of Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer who have always enjoyed representing their country. In reality, they have also often skipped the Davis Cup – which is not very well respected in the tennis scene.
Jannik Sinner is playing in China this week. © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / ELSA
Of course, one can only speculate about the meaning of this inflammatory campaign. The fact is that the campaign against Sinner caused quite a stir. And that the pink sports paper itself has come under criticism. In any case, Sinner hasn’t commented on it and probably won’t. As always, he prefers to concentrate on what he enjoys most: playing tennis. This week he is playing in China and wants to cause a sensation at the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing. Then the critics would probably become very quiet again.
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2023-09-26 05:30:00
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