Today Jannik Sinner does not take the field, but he is still the star of the ATP Finals in Turin and all the fans are at the Inalpi Arena, some in the stadium, some (many) in the Fan Village. But the ‘hunt’ for the world No. 1 is open and so the fastest and luckiest, for the modest sum of 35 euros, managed to get tickets to see their idol up close who trained from 4pm to 6pm on Sporting Press Club.
“That’s why he’s the strongest”
And it was truly a spectacle. It’s certainly not like seeing Jannik in a real match, but it helps to really understand why he is the strongest of all and will remain so for a long time. Today we asked Nicola Pietrangeli, the first great Italian champion who, at 91 years old, is still a great fan of a sport which, with a certain nostalgia, he said has “become something different compared to my time”.
His explanation – coincidentally – is the same one given some time ago by another great former tennis player, much younger than him, Andre Agassi: “To understand why Sinner is so strong you don’t need to see him play. You need to ‘feel’ him play. When he hits the ball you hear a tremendous bang and no one else makes that noise when he plays.”
And these ‘bangs’ are the ones that resounded this afternoon at Sporting when, after having tried all the shots – from the volley to the smash, from the serve to the return – during training with the 19-year-old Bolivian Juan Carlos Prado Angelo, sparring partner n.328 of the world, has entrusted himself to the care of Simone Vagnozzi.
The Italian coach, present on the court together with Darren Cahill, served Sinner balls to hit with the forehand and backhand from the baseline. To be hit by exploding all its power. And the Sporting pitches started to vibrate. They weren’t bombs, but they were close. And the audience, in rigorous silence until that moment, risked several rounds of applause.
During the two hours of training Sinner worked as he always does, but this time there was an adoring (and paying) crowd watching. And Sinner did not disappoint, showing off all his shots, those of a tennis world no. 1, and those of a football fan. Many balls returned by Prado Angelo were controlled with undoubted wisdom with the feet of the South Tyrolean who then also performed the shot shown with Alessandro Cattelan during the opening ceremony of the ATP Finals, in which he passes a tennis ball from one foot to the other and raises it.
The family
The press, friends and relatives attended the training in the gallery opposite the public. The inevitable brother Mark with his father Hanspeter and then the manager and his mentor Alex Vittur with his wife and young children. The male, like his father (former professional player) and obviously Jannik, is passionate about tennis and demonstrated this by taking to the court at the end of the session and playing with Vagnozzi and then with Sinner himself.
A performance that followed a funny skit that demonstrates the state of relaxation and serenity of the Sinner team: the champion together with the two coaches, his father, his brother, little Vittur and the last two arrivals in the ‘team of n.1 of the world, the athletic trainer Marco Panichi and the Argentine physiotherapist Ulises Badio, stood at the net and each held a tennis ball. The game was to pull it towards the back of the pitch and not let it leave the pitch.
Whoever took it out too slowly lost and had to suffer a ‘punishment’. And it fell to Cahill. In the general fun, Sinner’s Australian coach stood at the back of the court facing the wall and waited to be hit by the balls thrown (with the racket) by the others. Out of pity (probably) no one hit it, but the crowd had a lot of fun hearing the loud noise of the balls, hit with a fair amount of power by Jannik, crashing against the wall not far from Cahill. At the end Sinner gave himself to the public by signing caps, tennis balls, t-shirts or posters and agreeing to be photographed.
And outside the Sporting Press club dozens of fans crowded around waiting for the champion’s exit. Eager to see him, even if only from afar, because Jannik Sinner today is the pride (and heritage) of the whole of Italy and, at a time when football has lost appeal due to the poor results of the national team, thanks to him tennis is now the sport that most represents us in the world