Jannik Sinner, the fourth best tennis player in the world and star of the 2023 Davis Cup, resurrected Italy to give him the second Salad Bowl in its history and shout to the world that he is prepared to be the best.
In Italy they are not calm, in Italy they are excited, a word that best defines what is conveyed by their generation of young tennis players who lifted the Davis Cup at the Martín Carpena in Malaga, beating Australia in the final (2-0).
The champion team led by captain Filippo Volandri is a compendium of budding talents led by a redhead named Jannik Sinner, a prodigy on the court who, to make matters worse, seems to have not yet exploded. It is just in the process of maturity.
Lorenzo Musetti (27th), Matteo Arnaldi (44th) and Lorenzo Sonego (47th), the other three participants in the competition, helped win the title, since Simone Bolelli was left without participating. But hopes are pinned on Sinner, as he is the only Italian top-5 player since Adriano Panatta, leader of the Italian champions in 1976.
The transalpine nation had not won a tennis world championship since that same year and had not reached a final since 1998, but Jannik Sinner took on the challenge and put his country on his back. Five games played in the finals and five won: full of efficiency.
Two of those victories were against the big favorite, Novak Djokovic, who could only praise Sinner by saying that he was prepared “to be number one in the world.” This statement from the Serbian, winner of 24 majors and one of the best athletes in history, must be taken seriously.
Because, in addition to his tennis prowess, the level of maturity that Sinner demonstrated suggests that what is coming will be his explosion as the main rival of Carlos Alcaraz from Murcia, two twenty-somethings with favorable conditions to champion a new era of tennis.
The Italian right-hander closes the season with 64 games won, the third with the most wins behind Daniil Medvedev (66) and Carlos Alcaraz himself (65). Your year 2024 can be a consecration.
“We are very hungry to continue winning titles,” the world number four said at a press conference. A declaration of intentions. At the hearing he arrived calm and biting into an apple. And that had just taken a bite out of tennis history.
