Turin, Italy — Oh, oh oh oh, sinner, sinner.
Oh, oh oh oh, sinner, sinner.
Jannik Sinner is about to speak, but his name is echoing too loudly throughout Turin’s Inalpi Arena. We lit up billboards, wrote on placards, and sang songs across the aisle. The first Italian to achieve a men’s world No. 1, Sinner is not only the main attraction of the ATP Tour Finals tournament in his home country, but the tournament itself, both on and off the court.
He’s on a train station billboard. There he is, on a banner hanging from a light pole. He appears on GialappaShow, a satirical comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live. The show features Sinner’s red-headed poodle and his meticulous, even speech in skits.
And then he got on the court and, as he had done all year, basically blew away everyone who wasn’t Carlos Alcaraz, winning three out of three to advance to the semifinals, with about 12,000 fans blaring in his ears at every turn.
Despite his brilliance three years ago, Sinner was at a standstill in the tennis world.
Two years ago, he was a work in progress, missing the season-ending Tour finals here in Turin, a city considered a playground in northern Italy.
A year ago he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final but beat him en route, hinting loudly what was to come. Alcaraz said he is the next No. 1.
This year he fulfilled that prophecy. He is the world’s No. 1 and perhaps the most popular athlete in Italy, where there isn’t much sporting oxygen left once football stops.
“It’s great,” Sinner said Tuesday, competing on his home turf for the first time in nearly a year.
“I never take opportunities like this for granted.”
Jannik Sinner really doesn’t need to ask for more noise from the Italian crowd. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Italy has a long and famous conveyor belt of soccer stars. It’s much rarer to see a major figure in another sport, especially one who penetrates the consciousness of those who pay little attention to the sport. But this country has a way of rallying powerfully around Olympic champions and other outstanding athletes in other sports.
Over the years, motorcyclist Valentino Rossi and swimmer Federica Pellegrini have been very popular. People who have never used ski bindings know all about 2018 Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia. Sinner is the newest of these and probably the most beloved. Inter Milan took on Napoli on Sunday in a clash between Italy’s two biggest football clubs. The match attracted 1.7 million TV viewers in Italy. Sinner’s match against Australia’s Alex de Minaur wasn’t quite as spectacular, but it drew 2.27 million viewers.
Tennis stars from their home country are always the attraction, but he may well be the first Italian no. Maybe it’s because she’s a 1, or maybe it’s because she’s definitely a redheaded slut, but the Italian Sinner looks like she’s on a different scale. Just as his steady, calm demeanor anchors his game of grace and fury, one of those strange alchemical combinations of star and country fuels each play.
Young and old alike ride. He is what Italians call “fuoriclasse”. Roughly translated, this means out of this world, i.e. world class. He is, so to speak, one of those “predestined” for greatness.
“He’s young, but not young in the way he plays,” said Federico Vangha, from Turin, who was drinking Aperol Spritzes with his girlfriend and another crazy Sinner fan, Monica Merlo, on Tuesday evening.
The sinner walks on flippers and does not appear to have a comb or hair dryer. The fact that he transformed into a Gucci model when no one thought of him as a Gucci model also makes him different. When he’s not playing tennis, he’s currently pitching for Gucci, Head, Nike, Rolex, pharmaceutical company La Roche-Posay, Internet service provider Fastweb, nutrition company Enervit and paper products company Pigna, among others. The deal with Nike is worth $158 million (£125.2 million) over 10 years. The annual value of his off-court deals is around $15 million (£11.9 million).
He has also signed deals with pasta company De Cecco and Italian coffee giant Lavazza. During the transition, his opponents don’t even get a break. Video screens play ad after ad, with Sinner sipping espresso or pushing financial giant Intesa Sanpaolo.
The madness began with the “Carrot Boys,” a group of young men who donned carrot costumes in honor of the fiery redhead and seemingly spared no expense in their thinner matches. At his game this week, the stands were filled with fans wearing neon orange. Their shirts glow in the blue light of the InRP Arena as his other symbols, the carrot and fox emoji, glow orange across all social media platforms.
Jannik Sinner holding the world No. 1 trophy at the end of the year. (Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Italian players who weren’t even in the tournament show up to watch the game. Last night, Sinner’s Davis Cup teammate Lorenzo Sonego was courtside.
Everyone else, including the other seven competitors, even Alcaraz, are supporting characters.
“It’s exactly what I expected here in Turin,” De Minaur said in a press conference after Sinner beat him 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday. “Great atmosphere.”
Taylor Fritz said Italian believers have a lot to deal with, but not too much. He has clashed with noisy crowds, especially against French players at the French Open. That wasn’t it.
He lost in straight sets but said it was “a fun match.”
Ubiquity comes at a cost, especially at home. Sinner has given up on going out for a cup of coffee or a meal this week. There are always many fans gathered outside the players’ hotels in the city. He won’t get very far. It is better to stay inside and relax. At least that’s what he told himself as fans lined up to see a man who was as much their hero as his tennis.
“It’s important that he’s number one, but it’s also important who he is,” said Francesco Baccarani, a 12-year-old player who arrived at the Sinner-Fritz match wearing a red, white and green headdress. “He’s an example to all of us on how we want to play.”
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Sinner is only 23 years old. This could last for a long time, especially as the ATP approaches another five-year deal with the Italian Tennis Federation that would keep the richest tour events in the country until 2029.
Angelo Binaggi, president of Italian tennis federation FITP, said in an interview in Turin that Sinner had taken what was already happening – the growing interest in tennis – and made it explode. His rise coincided with the expansion of SuperTennis, Italy’s free-to-air tennis channel that began hosting the US Open. Conveniently, the Sinner won, and many underprivileged Italians who couldn’t afford to pay for a TV were able to watch it.
Now Binaghi has another problem: accessibility. There are not enough tennis schools and clinics to accommodate all the children who want to play, and building new courts and facilities will take time.
“Bureaucracy,” he said, retreating into Italy’s infamous mourning. “It’s very difficult.”
Nonetheless, Sinner is the answer to Italian tennis prayers in another way. A few years ago, it looked like Matteo Berrettini and his hammer-like serve would reach their peak. He reached the 2021 Wimbledon final.
Danillo Baccarani, Francesco’s father, said Berrettini’s power game did not appeal to Italian tennis sensibilities like Sinner did. The tennis hero here is Nicola Pietrangeli, a star of the 1950s and 1960s known for his refined and instinctive play.
“Sinner is closer to someone like (Roger) Federer,” Baccarani said.
And what about the idea that the Sinners are somehow less Italian because they come from the San Candido mountains in northeastern Italy near the Austrian border, closer culturally to their neighbors than to Rome? Sinner’s native language is German.
“It’s a stupid idea,” Baccarani said.
Sinner turned this to his advantage. With the retirement of Dominic Thiem, Austria is without a tennis star. The state laid partial claim to Sinner.
All the hoopla is stupid to him.
“I’m just a 23-year-old guy who plays tennis,” he said at a press conference earlier this week. He goes outside and sees a giant image of himself on a billboard. He turns on the television and sells coffee. His father was a chef. His mother was a restaurant worker. He was going to be a skier.
Jannik Sinner has taken on the role of Italy’s most beloved sportsman, at least outside of football. (Tallio Puglia/Getty Images)
“I’m trying to get used to it,” he said. “I’m just trying to play good tennis.”
Aside from the appearance of other hotshots besides Alcaraz, there’s one thing that could throw the Sinner train off course. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is seeking a ban of one to two years in its appeal of the doping case submitted to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in September.
Earlier this year, Sinner tested positive twice for the anabolic steroid clostebol. Three tribunals convened by tennis anti-doping authorities accepted his explanation that the substance was accidentally introduced into Sinner’s system after his physiotherapist gave Sinner a massage after using it to treat a cut on his finger. WADA also accepts this explanation, but believes it must take some responsibility for the actions of its support team.
Clostebol has become a problem in Italian sport, with numerous athletes in various disciplines testing positive as a result of using the healing cream. Memories of the Juventus doping scandal in the 1990s remain. The scandal rose to the highest level of the Old Lady of Turin before the Italian Supreme Court acquitted the club.
Sinner’s verdict is unlikely to come out until 2025, and even in Turin, at least for now, point after point is lost in the noise to reach the inevitable conclusion.
Game, match, meeting, sinner.
And Ole attacks again.
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
(Additional reporting by James Horncastle)
