Jannik Sinner is through to his first grand slam semi-final as he takes on Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old Italian is one of the game’s rising stars and his first appearance in the last four of a slam is expected to be the first of many.
Sinner led Djokovic by two sets in last year’s Wimbledon quarter-final in what was an early example of his prodigious talent, despite the 23-time grand slam champion coming back to win the match in five.
Followed everywhere he goes by the ‘Carota Boys’, Sinner is already one of the top players in the world and is set to form the sport’s next great rivalry along with the 20-year-olds Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune.
Who is Jannik Sinner?
A 21-year-old from Italy, Jannik Sinner’s talent has always been obvious. He broke into the world’s top 100 when he was just 18 years old and had reached the top-10 by the age of 20. Sinner has recorded strong results on all three surfaces, and by 2022 had already reached the quarter-finals of each of the four grand slams.
Away from the tennis court, Sinner is a keen skier and could have turned professional had he not decided to focus on tennis. Sinner spent lots of his childhood on the slopes of the Italian Alps and was one of the best skiers in the country by the age of 12, before deciding to concentrate on tennis at the age of 13. Novak Djokovic was also a talented skier in his youth, while Sinner has also struck up a friendship with Lyndsey Vonn, the American Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest downhill racers of all time.
Sinner made his tennis breakthrough by reaching the Miami Open final in 2021, but in 2022 he emerged as one of the top players in the game. He led Djokovic by two sets in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and struck up a brilliant rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, who became the youngest world No 1 in tennis history at the end of that year. Sinner and Alcaraz have already played each other six times, with the rivalry evenly matched at three wins each. Their US Open quarter-final last September, which Alcaraz won in five sets after five hours and 15 minutes, and after Sinner held match point, was one of the matches of the season.
Sinner, though, has proved one of the few players in the world who can match Alcaraz’s power from the baseline. Deceptively tall at 6’4” and with a lanky frame, the Italian has one of the hardest forehands in the game and has been praised for the wonderful timing of his groundstrokes.
Jannik Sinner plays Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon semi-finals— (Getty Images)
Djokovic is an admirer and the pair regularly practice together. “He likes to play on quick surfaces because he likes to be aggressive and take control of the point,” Djokovic said. “From both forehand and backhand, he’s smashing the ball really, really hard, trying to be the one that is going to dictate the point from early on. I know his game well.”
Sinner’s development has been helped by the coach Darren Cahill, who joined the Italian’s team in 2022. Cahill was Simona Halep’s coach as she reached No 1 in the world and won two grand slam titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.
The Italian is often supported by the ‘Carota Boys’ - a group of fans who turn up to his matches dressed as carrots. The group have their own Instagram page and were at Wimbledon to support the 21-year-old, although they have since left London.
“I miss them a lot,” Sinner said. Why do they dress as carrots? “I played in Vienna three years ago, and the match before mine went to the third set, and I was very hungry,” Sinner said. “I hadn’t had a chance to eat, so I told my coach I needed something to eat, and he brought me a carrot."
