Jannik Sinner has recently opened up about how tough it was to move away from home as a young teenager.
Sinner's talent has been clear for a very long time. Since he first emerged on the ATP Tour, it simply felt like a matter of time before he reached the very top. That has happened this season.
The 22-year-old won his first Grand Slam at the 2024 Australian Open. He achieved this by beating the 10-time champion in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, and then recovering from two sets down to triumph against Daniil Medvedev in an epic final.
The Italian has not rested on his laurels since. Sinner won his first tournament since the Australian Open in Rotterdam. His form is taking the tennis world by storm, and Carlos Alcaraz admitted that Sinner is the better of the two players right now.
However, Sinner's journey began many years before his Australian Open title. In an interview with Vanity Fair, he discussed moving to Bordighera at the age of 13 to train at Riccardo Piatt's academy and how tough it was for him and his parents.
"It was tough for them (my parents) too. I was 13 and a half years old, and the truth is that as soon as I got there I started crying, I called them after two hours. They must have thought, 'Here, we have to get him'. Instead I told him to be calm, that everything was fine."
It shows Sinner's strong mindset from an early age. Despite the emotions he was feeling at the time, he still knew that training at Piatti's academy was the best decision for him and that everything would be okay.
Sinner also mentioned that he was lucky to stay at Luka Cvjetkovic's place, who was a tutor at the Piatti academy, and that he enjoyed staying with Cvjetkovic's family.
"I was lucky enough to stay in a fantastic family, that of Luka Cvjetkovic: there were two children and a dog. I was happy, I'd never had a dog before."
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