Andy Roddick finally had the chance to meet Jannik Sinner, and he was left very impressed with what he saw from the Italian, both on and off the court.
Roddick was in New York for the US Open final, and he spoke about that experience on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast. The American spent most of the US Open around the courts, getting a chance to soak in all the action up close.
He's been impressed with Sinner for a while, but finally got a chance to meet him in person at the event. It actually happened on the final day of the tournament, before the 23-year-old was supposed to go out onto the court to face Taylor Fritz in the final.
Roddick was impressed with how calm Sinner was before the match. He had never seen anything like it outside of Roger Federer, and it was intimidating.
Another intimidating aspect is how the Italian speaks about working because he seems to love it. No player who has to face Sinner loves to hear that, especially after a major, when he declares how he needs to get back to work and improve even further.
He's too good already, but according to Roddick, there is just so much to admire about him.
"To hear Sinner talk about himself ‘I don’t volley that well’. All he talked about post-US Open was [the] process and how he can’t wait to get back to the process. That is intimidating in its own way. It seems like he is low stress."
"I said hello to him [Sinner] because you walk in the locker room and my locker is like way to the right but he takes up kind of that centre area right before you gotta make a move left or right in the men’s locker room."
Roddick also expanded on the meeting with Sinner, which was the first time they met. As he's not around the Tour as much, he doesn't know most of the young players who have come around since he stopped playing.
"Darren [Cahill] was there and Andre [Agassi] was there and at that point it would have been like I was just being a d**k if I didn’t say hello to all of them. I had never met Jannik Sinner before in my life. Like I don’t know a lot of the players because I’m not at all the tournaments."
"But he [Sinner] is the most relaxed person I’ve ever seen besides Roger before a Slam final. It feels like he has this very quiet confidence about the way that he goes about things."
"Even his celebrations aren’t like for anyone else, it’s like this relief like okay and you feel like he was ready to start again like an hour after the US Open, which is a problem for the rest of the earth."
Sinner is indeed a problem for the rest of the ATP Tour, even though, luckily for Roddick, he doesn't have to solve it, as his playing days are long over.
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