Jannik Sinner (Photo: FB/Sinner)
Although the time frame was tighter than for his interview with the Pope, “Zeit” editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo had a pleasantly profound conversation with Jannik Sinner.
by Arthur Oberhofer
Jannik Sinner’s management did not even make an exception for the “king” of “time”, Giovanni di Lorenzo.
The time frame for the interview with Jannik Sinner on the sidelines of the tournament in Halle: 20 minutes. “How is that supposed to work?” asked Giovanni di Lorenzo, “much more time was planned for the conversation with the Pope.”
Management remained firm. Nevertheless, the interview that the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” conducted with the newly crowned number 1 in world tennis ended up going into extra time. And that’s a good thing. Because the interview with Jannik Sinner is worth reading. Because it stands out from the usual (and superficial) question-and-answer ping-pong between overexcited sports reporters and annoyed superstars.
Giovanni di Lorenzo noticed Jannik Sinner’s “great attentiveness and friendliness” “from the very first minute”. The tennis star was open to questions, and sometimes the interviewer had the feeling that Sinner was looking for the language that best suited his answer: German, “his mother tongue, which he had somewhat lost practice in, Italian or English”. In the end, Sinner and di Lorenzo spoke for 35 minutes.
At the beginning, Giovanni di Lorenzo confronts the South Tyrolean with a saying by the former tennis player Andrea Petkovic: One of the skills of the best is the ability to reduce one’s own thought patterns to the bare essentials in moments of greatest pressure, no superfluous thoughts: see the ball, hit the ball. Instinct. Breath.
Sinner’s succinct answer: “That’s right.”
Every tennis player, whether No. 1 or a beginner, is under pressure, says the 22-year-old: “I had the most pressure at the beginning of my career. I come from a normal family, we never had much money, and I wanted to earn my own money as quickly as possible. After that, I was much more relaxed.”
Sometimes you have to play with instinct. And when you make a mistake, you have to be prepared to understand the mistake.
Sinner quotes Roger Federer: “You can make the perfect shot that ends up in the top ten shots of the year. But in the end, that’s just one point.”
Jannik Sinner admits in an interview with “Zeit” that he cannot sleep after defeats. The most difficult moment in his young career was the quarterfinal defeat at the 2022 US Open against Carlos Alcaraz. “I had match point there,” says Sinner, “then I lost, and he won the Grand Slam, that was very difficult for me.”
Giovanni di Lorenzo then talks about Sinner’s round of 16 match at the French Open against Corentin Moutet, where the Sextner was 0-5 down after 19 minutes. Mentally, he was not ready to play at the beginning. “It can happen that I’m a bit in the clouds,” explains Sinner, who was then actually able to turn the match around.
Screen “The Time”
At the age of 13, Jannik Sinner left South Tyrol and moved to Riccardo Piatti’s training camp. “Were you not afraid?” asks Giovanni di Lorenzo. Sinner’s answer later becomes the title of the big interview: “I have never been afraid until now.”
Question di Lorenzo: Did he know as a teenager in Piatti’s camp that he had the strength to get through this?
Sinner’s answer:
“I wanted to get through it (…). I was someone who always suffered from homesickness – and my parents knew that. And then they drove me down to Bordighera, when I was thirteen and a half (Sinner moved in with the family of a Croatian coach, editor’s note). They had a son, a daughter and a dog (…). My mum’s look when I said goodbye was a little, not fearful, but doubtful. My parents then started again, and after an hour I called them and said: I’m fine here, everything is OK (…). It wasn’t easy for them either.”
When he was sad, he spent a lot of time with the dog, reports Sinner. “I love dogs, cats too, we have a cat at home, I’m such an animal lover.”
The Croatian coach’s son and daughter were younger than him, and he felt a bit like an older brother. Sinner is still in contact with them today.
He ended his collaboration with Riccardo Piatti, even though he had taken him into the top ten in the world. He needed new input, Sinner told the editor-in-chief of “Zeit”, he was an honest person, he was not one to go left or right, but straight ahead… that’s why he made this decision, which was very difficult.
Jannik Sinner (Photo: FB/Sinner)
Giovanni di Lorenzo also confronts Jannik Sinner with the tax evasion theory that is often circulated on social media. Sinner replies: Monte Carlo is only half an hour away from Bordighera. He “moved over straight away” when he was 18 because all the top players trained there. Medvedev. Dimitrov. Djokovic. The tennis club there is perfect, three gyms, lots of courts. “If I need something, I can just walk down the street and nobody will talk to me.”
Of course he knows that the tax rate is very low. But even if it were the same as in Italy, he would still go to Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo is just a little different. “You get peace and quiet from the people,” says Sinner.
“Zeit” boss Giovanni di Lorenzo also asks Jannik Sinner about a role model – outside of sports.
Sinner’s beautiful answer:
“My biggest idol was always my dad. Because he got up early, he left home at 7:30 a.m., sometimes he didn’t come back from work until 8 or 9 p.m. – he always came back with a smile. Maybe he had just had a very difficult day when nothing was going right. But he always came back with a smile, he always brought me joy, that was the nice thing.”
Di Lorenzo asks if he inherited his dad’s smile and his ability to bring joy. “I think so,” Sinner replies, “but he does it better than I do.”
Photo(s): © 123RF.com and/or/with © Archive Die Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung GmbH (if no reference is made)
2024-06-29 02:10:00
#talks #South #Tyrolean #Daily #Newspaper
