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Sinner became the first Italian player to win the Australian Open title.
Jannik Sinner attributed his calm winning performance at the Australian Open to his need to “improve quickly.”
Having just won his first Grand Slam title, the Italian celebrated without making a fuss in front of a raucous Rod Laver Arena.
Despite trailing by two sets in his first major final, the 22-year-old showed a masterclass of composure as he pulled off an epic comeback against Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne.
“I like to dance in a storm of pressure,” Sinner said. He remained calm as he lifted the Norman Brooks Challenge Cup.
Once one of Italy’s most promising young skiers, Sinner decided to change the slopes for a tennis career and when he left home at 14, he had to cook and clean for himself.
It was a decision that worked out well for the calm and composed Sinner, as he took his first championship points almost unfazed and became the youngest player to win the Australian Open since 2008, when Novak Djokovic won his first title at the age of 20. became the winner.
He had dropped just one set before Sunday’s final, and that was against world No. 1 and 10-time champion Djokovic.
“There’s always pressure, but that pressure is good. You have to take it in a good way. It’s a privilege, right?” he said.
“I had to grow up quickly.”
Sinner, who was runner-up in the U.S. giant slalom as a junior, decided to focus solely on tennis until she was 12 years old, which led to her separation from her family two years later.
“I left home when I was 14, so I had to grow up pretty quickly, cooking for myself and doing my own laundry,” Sinner said.
“That may have been the shortest path to growth.”
Despite being separated from his parents, Sinner’s coaches said his “amazing” mother and father raised him “really well.”
“When you look at Yannick on the court, he has an incredible amount of respect for everyone around him, whether it’s the referees, the ball kids, the linemen,” Darren Cahill said.
“He’s down to earth. His parents are just like him.”
Along with his rapid growth, Sinner’s path to tennis success was also rapid.
The 17-year-old won his first title on the Challenger Tour, followed by the NextGen Finals title nine months later, establishing himself as one of the sport’s brightest young stars.
Since then, he has won 10 ATP titles, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and won his first major in Melbourne, but the world No. 4 says it’s still hard to realize his success. .
“We don’t even know how fast things are moving,” Sinner said.
“I’m sitting here with this trophy, looking at it, and for me, I still have to realize that it happened.”
Sinner has been cheered on by the ‘Kalota Boys’ throughout the ups and downs of his journey so far. The Carota Boys are a group of loyal Italian fans who attended the match in Vienna in 2019, wearing carrot costumes during Sinner’s changeover.
Before the final, Sinner joked that his fan group was now more famous than he was, after becoming only the second player in the Open era to fight back from two sets down to win the Australian Open final. That’s definitely not the case.
The “Carota Boys”, who had attended his matches earlier in the tournament and watched the final together in Turin, were at Rod Laver Arena holding up toy carrots and wearing orange clothes. There were many other fans wearing .
A new era of Italian tennis
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Kalota Boys are often seen supporting Sinner in major tournaments
Before Sunday’s final, only one Italian player had won a major tournament during the British Open era, Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros in 1976.
Sinner now becomes the first Italian player, male or female, to win the Australian Open singles title.
Sinner represents a new era in Italian tennis, but her last major singles success was when Flavia Pennetta won the women’s title at the 2015 US Open.
Matteo Berrettini threatened to disrupt the men’s team when he reached the Wimbledon final in 2021 and reached the last four at Melbourne Park a year later.
Now Italy has a new men’s Grand Slam winner in Sinner. He made Italian history in November by defeating Djokovic on his way to the men’s team final, clinching the country’s first Davis Cup title in 47 years.
“The last few years in the Davis Cup and now in the Slams with Jannik have been incredible,” said Sinner’s coach Simone Vagnozzi.
“But I think it’s been around for 10 years. We have federations that organize a lot of tournaments so that young players can stay close to home. They can play a lot without spending money. Because we know that tennis is difficult, especially for young players. ”
Italy also has a bright future in men’s doubles, as Simone Borrelli and Andrea Vavassoli reached the final, losing to second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden on Saturday.
They will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sinner, the kid who grew up to become a Grand Slam champion.