Paris 2024 Olympics: Already a Grand Slam champ and world No.1, Jannik Sinner takes on a new challenge: His first Olympic Games
It was only five years ago, in the spring of 2019, when a gangly 17-year-old Jannik Sinner claimed a shocking first-round win at his home ATP Masters 1000, in Rome.
The teen from the small northern town of San Candido, Italy, would fall in his next match to world No.7 Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he had announced his arrival to the greater tennis world, and knew then what was in front of him: "I think we are on the right way," he said in his first-ever international press conference.
"We just have to continue like that."
Fast-forward to the present and Sinner is not only the Australian Open champion but also the world No.1, claiming his first major in January and collecting 14 titles in total, including four in 2024.
This weekend (27 July), Sinner steps back onto the clay surface where he first made his mark in Rome, only this time for his Olympic debut at Paris 2024, where the tennis event is held on familiar grounds: Stade Roland-Garros.
"It's one of the biggest events we have throughout the year," Sinner said after his quarter-final loss earlier this month at Wimbledon. "I'm looking forward to it."
A 42-4 mark on the season would usually be eyebrow-raising for any player, but Sinner has raised his standard so much that there have been questions around his form of late, including in five-set losses at Roland-Garros (to Carlos Alcaraz) and at Wimbledon (to Daniil Medvedev).
But the Olympics offer a fresh start for an athlete that is now a household name in his home nation. So what do the Games hold for Sinner?
Jannik Sinner: 'The most important goal is to improve'
Sinner actually grew up in the small village of Sesto, a ski resort town of less than 2,000 that helped foster his early love of downhill skiing, which he evetually became a junior champion in.
Last month, he was feted there in glittering ceremony that doubled as a celebration of his Australian Open victory and achieveing the world No.1 ranking, making him the first Italian player to do so in singles.
Some 500 children looked on in awe during Sinner's ceremony, where he displayed not only his newly earned world No.1 trophy, but also the Davis Cup, which he had led Italy to at the end of 2023... a first for the nation since 1976.
"The most important goal is always to improve as a player and as a person, surrounding myself with great people," Sinner said via the ATP when he reached No.1. "I think I can be very happy and pleased with what I am doing [with] my team."
That team has been key for Sinner as he has levelled up over the past couple of years, having honed his game with the legendary Riccardo Piazzi since the age of 13. In early 2022, he switched to a relatively unknown coach in Simone Vagnozzi, while adding on the well-respective Darren Cahill, who has coached many top players in the past, too.
Their extended team includes a collection of trainers and PTs, and Sinner, still just 22, has bought into a long-term plan: They want to achieve sustained greatness, year after year.
"I'm extremely happy that I am in this position now," Sinner said in Melbourne after claiming his first major. "I have a great team behind me who knows what I have to do. With Darren, he has a lot of experience. He has been through this already a number of times. Simone, we were talking already after the [final vs. Medvedev] about what we can improve still."
Men's tennis stars line up for Paris 2024
The men's tennis event for Paris 2024 promises to be a blockbuster, with Sinner and Alcaraz joined by Novak Djokovic, who is still hunting for his first Olympic gold, as well as Rafael Nadal, the legendary star who has won an unprecedented 14 Roland-Garros trophies inside Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Alexander Zverev, the German, is the reigning Olympic champion, too.
Olympic tennis hasn't been held on clay since Barcelona 1992, and it's a switch that will challenge every player who sets foot on Stade Roland-Garros just two weeks after the completion of Wimbledon - famously held on grass.
Sinner has won just one of his 14 crowns on clay, claiming Umag in 2022 in an epic over Alcaraz as they both were settling into their roles as top stars. After a brief vacation post-Wimbledon, Sinner has resumed training, hitting with the likes of Nishikori Kei at their training base in Monte Carlo.
All the ingredients are there for Sinner to push for a place on the podium. Now we wait and see how it plays out.