How Sinner became a Grand Slam winner: Payback over Djokovic and parallels with Federer
Six months ago, Sinner was said to be too mentally weak for the majors and too skinny, because in the summer of 2023, he had only one ATP 500 title (Washington 2021)to his name along with a number of smaller ones. But then came a dream performance at the Masters in Toronto and at home in Turin, where he claimed the scalp of Novak Djokovic in the group stages of the ATP Finals after beating the Serb at the Davis Cup.
Djokovic sent the brash youngster crashing back down to earth in the final five days later, but while it was a difficult moment for Sinner, it also gave him extra motivation to set up a rematch in Melbourne. While his triumph came courtesy of a stunning turnaround against Daniil Medvedev, the Italian could not have played the final if he had not gotten the biggest favourite out of the way.
Is he even Italian?
Sinner doesn't have the typical passionate temperament of an Italian, and is instead cool and calm. Fittingly, he took the first steps of his sporting career on skis.
He comes from the Tyrolean valley near the ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, not far from the Austrian border. Videos documenting little Jannik's success in ski races are circulating on social media. He was a big talent, winning the Italian championship as a junior at the age of eight.
He gave his hometown of Sesto at least a small consolation with his tennis triumph in Melbourne - it was in mourning at the weekend after a mother and her two children died in a car crash. "It's an incredible achievement that brings us all joy at a time of great pain," Mayor Thomas Summerer said at the tennis hall, where nearly 100 people turned out to watch Sinner's final match. "Tomorrow we will all go to the funeral, but Jannik provided positive emotions that helped us get through this."
The ginger Tyrolean prince has become a king on the other side of the world after an eight-year journey that took him away from home and across the globe. "I don't go home much anymore, so I really don't see my parents much, but when we are together it's always a beautiful moment. I left home when I was 14, so I had to grow up pretty quickly and learn to cook and do my own laundry. But that was probably the quickest way to grow up."
His success down under this year confirmed that. Five of his seven matches were with top-30 players, and the last three were among the top five in the world, and he rose to the challenge like a seasoned pro rather than a young talent.
Key moments
Sinner vs Rublev 6-4, 7-6, 6-3
After Sinner took the first set, Rublev's big offensive began. In the second set, the Russian tennis player kept attacking his opponent's serve, but the Italian fought off all four break points and did the same in the tiebreak, where he won the set despite being down 5-2. He won five points in a row and Rublev lost faith that he could finally win a Grand Slam quarter-final at the tenth attempt.
Sinner vs Djokovic 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3
A lot has been written about how bad Djokovic was and that he has perhaps never played a worse match at a Grand Slam, but Sinner's quality should also be mentioned. He beat the world number one thanks to his exceptionally steady serve; the Serb only won 28 points on the Italian's serve in the whole match, and there is a second, perhaps even more glaring figure: Sinner did not give Djokovic a single break point in the semi-final.
Sinner vs Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3
Early on in the match, few would have bet on Jannik Sinner. The weight of the moment - his first Grand Slam final - seemed to be too much for him. Trailing 6-3, 5-1, he had lost half of his service games, but when he managed to break back for the first time and at least lower the deficit in the eventually-lost second set, he came alive. The turnaround came slowly but surely, but from that moment on the young Italian did not let his serve go and Medvedev, who was becoming less and less energetic, was overpowered.
Important numbers
1
Jannik Sinner won his first Grand Slam, but he also became the first Italian to triumph in Melbourne and he is the first man other than the big three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic to win the title since 2014.
22+165
Sinner was 22 years and 165 days old on the day of his victory over Daniil Medvedev and became the youngest winner of the Australian Open since Novak Djokovic triumphed in Melbourne in 2008. He also replicated the nearly 50-year-old feat of Bjorn Borg, who turned around a 0-2 loss in the 1974 Roland Garros final; the Swede was 18 years old then, and Sinner is now the second-youngest player to accomplish such a turnaround in the Open era.
17
On his seventeenth attempt, Jannik Sinner managed to conquer the Grand Slam challenge. It is the same number of tries that Roger Federer needed to win his first major, at Wimbledon in 2003. Federer triumphed just before his 22nd birthday, which is a very similar age to the current Melbourne champion; Sinner turned 22 five months ago. And one more purely coincidental similarity: Federer's then-peer Lleyton Hewitt already boasted two Grand Slam trophies, as is the case with Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner's main rival.
Winning the first Grand Slam of the season puts Sinner in fourth place in the ATP rankings, but it is quite likely that the Italian will improve on his career high in the coming weeks. In particular, the position of Daniil Medvedev is under threat, as Sinner is only 455 points behind him and the Russian is defending a lot of points from last year's very successful spring. Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are also in sight.
Sinner has also confirmed that he is not going to stop at fourth place. "As soon as the final was over, I talked to my coach about what aspects I should improve to continue to have opportunities to win tournaments like this," he said in a sentence that hints at his work ethic and ambition.
Ultimately, he is probably really the best tennis player in the world in recent months. Ten of his last eleven matches have been won by him, with the only blemish being the aforementioned November loss to Djokovic in Turin.