Italian tennis coach Massimo Sartori talked to Italian newspaper Corriere dell’Alto Adige on Jannik Sinner, who reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Miami finishing runner-up to Hubert Hurkacz.
Sinner won the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan and two ATP Tour trophies in Sofia in 2020 and in Melbourne 1 at the start of 2021. He has become the youngest 2-time champion since Novak Djokovic. Last year he advanced to 2020 Roland Garros quarter final at the age of 19, becoming the first debutant to reach this stage of the tournament since Rafael Nadal in 2005 and the youngest quarter finalist at the French Open since Novak Djokovic in 2006.
This year Sinner lost to Denis Shapovalov in the fifth set at the Australian Open and reached the quarter final in Dubai before losing to eventual champion Aslan Karatsev.
Sartori, who trains Andreas Seppi and spotted Sinner, believes that Sinner could finish the season in the top 10.
“Jannik knows how to play well on the red clay too. It’s a surface that requires a more complex tennis on a tactical and technical level than hard court. Jannik already showed this last year in Rome and Paris. It is precisely his technical aptitude that allows him to be strong even clay. He is one who crosses the ball with his hands, in the sense that when he hits he is always under the ball, he is in control and can move it as he likes. On clay, where compared to hard-court, you have to know how to push the ball, this feature makes the difference”, said Sartori.
“I met Jannik when he was 13. Alex Vittur pointed him out to me. That day I would have liked to have him play against Seppi, who was not able to play because he had a backache. I played with him. After an hour I was exhausted. Technically Jannik already has little to improve now. As Riccardo Piatti recalls, he must grow in experience, but he has already played a lot of matches on the ATP circuit in the past two years. I confirm the prediction of two years ago. Jannik will become the strongest player in a few years. This year he will finish the season in the top 10-12 in the ATP Ranking and will qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin, at least as alternate”.
Sartori praised Jannik’s ability to learn and his will to continue improving.
“He has this extraordinary ability to learn, to create improvement even at the cost of changing direction along the way. Jannik does not know fear, which instead grips many other players on the circuit”.
