Jannik Sinner Opens Up About Promise He Made to His Parents About Quitting Tennis
NewsSunday, 24 August 2025 at 10:06
Jannik Sinner is currently the World No. 1 player and a four-time Grand Slam champion, but it's not something he believed could have happened early on in his career.
Sinner began playing tennis only at the age of seven, as he previously dedicated all of his time to alpine skiing. He won an Italian national championship in giant slalom at age seven, and even gave up tennis for some time because of skiing.
But despite his unconventional start, the Italian player later fell in love with the sport, and he started playing professional men's tournaments already as a 16-year-old, proving his incredible talent.
At the start of his career, however, Sinner had no idea just how successful he would one day become. Like most of the children dreaming of becoming elite athletes, he was supported just by his parents, and he knew his family didn't have unlimited funds.
Speaking ahead of the 2025 US Open, Sinner revealed that when he was a teenager, he made a promise to his parents that if he didn't make it to the Top 200 by the age of 23, he would quit tennis.
"I remember, to my parents, I said. I was younger when I left home, but I said if I'm 23 or 24 in around, not under the Top 200, I would stop playing because we cannot afford it with the money what we have."
Luckily for Sinner and his tennis career, he ended the 2019 season (when he was 18 years old) in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings, and progressed ever since. By 2021, he was already a Top 10 player, which meant he, financially, didn't have to worry about the future of his tennis career.
"It costs a lot of money to travel around the tournaments, and if you have a coach or... I was very lucky to, when I was already 18, that I started to earn my money and I felt already safe. When you're young, you just say a dream, you don't even believe it."
Sinner, who overcame a virus in Cincinnati, also admitted that even though he dreamed about becoming the World No. 1 when he was young, those dreams weren't really dreams he would believe in.
"I used sometimes to say, 'I want to be No. 1 in the world, I want to win a Grand Slam.' It's really just a dream, and it was way beyond my dream. Being in a position where I am."
"Now, it's different. Now, I understand my potential, I understand that if I play well I can win tournaments, but if you asked me when I was young, if you told me one day I would be in the Top 100, I would be the happiest."
Now, Sinner is in a much different position. He enters the 2025 US Open as the top favorite to win his fifth Grand Slam title. In the first round of the tournament, he will start against Vit Kopriva.
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