Jannik Sinner has emerged as one of the world's top tennis players, yet his journey could have steered him towards the ski slopes instead.
The young Italian was a talented skier from age three. At eight, he won a national championship in giant slalom and was a national runner-up at 12. However, at 13, he shifted his focus to tennis and moved to Bordighera to train with veteran coach Riccardo Piatti.
The tennis prodigy started competing in professional tournaments when he was just 16. By the time he turned 17, he had already won several ATP Challenger Tour titles. In 2019, he reached the top 100 of the world rankings and won the Next Generation ATP Finals as well as the ATP Newcomer of the Year award.
In 2021, he became the youngest player to win an ATP Finals match on debut since Lleyton Hewitt in Lisbon in 2000.
Jannik Sinner: Davis Cup and Grand Slam triumphs
In 2021, Sinner gave notice of his talent when reached his first Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open. Despite going down to big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz, he would soon claim his first big tournament win at July's ATP 500 Washington Open.
He had a breakout year in 2023 months after Darren Cahill joined his coaching team. Following defeats in finals in Rotterdam and Miami to Daniil Medvedev, Sinner claimed his first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open in Toronto. He won the China and Vienna Opens in October before scoring his first win over Novak Djokovic in the group stages of the ATP Tour Finals in front of a vociferous Turin crowd.
The Serbian great exacted revenge in the final, but Sinner was clearly a man on the up and defeated Djokovic in singles and doubles in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup in Malaga. And the 22-year-old defeated Australia's Alex de Minaur to secure Italy's first Davis Cup title since their sole previous triumph in 1976.
Sinner continued that form into the first major of 2024, beating 10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic in four sets to reach his first Slam final. He lost the opening two sets to Medvedev, but roared back to take victory and become Italy's first male major winner since Adriano Panatta at Roland-Garros, again in 1976.