Jannik Sinner is the tennis inbetweener - and this could be his year for Wimbledon

Yahoo

01-07-2025

Italy's Jannik Sinner in action during his first round match against Italy's Luca Nardi at Wimbledon (Reuters via Beat Media Group subscription)
By James Toney at Wimbledon
Jannik Sinner is doing his best to change stubborn clichés about Italian stereotypes.
'Boringly brilliant' was how his play was once described, the No 1 seed so effortlessly efficient in his straight-sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 victory over compatriot Luca Nardi you would think he shared a nationality with the last redhead to win at Wimbledon: Boris Becker.
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Indeed, he grew up in German-speaking South Tyrol and his personality could not be more different from fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the seventh seed, who was at his fiery, emotional best as he exited to Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili.
On the hothead range of Italian sports stars, if Gennaro Gattuso is 100 then Sinner – calm, composed, modest in victory, humble in defeat – is somewhere in the single digits.
It is not that there has been no controversy. He served a three-month doping ban immediately after winning the Australian Open in January – it is just that people do not seem to care.
There have always been fan favourites and bad boys at the All England Club. Sinner just seems stuck as the sport's ultimate inbetweener.
Nardi did not pose much of a first-round threat, especially on grass, and Sinner lost only four points on first serve and did not give his opponent a single sniff of a break point.
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It was just the sort of opening match he needed as he returned to Grand Slam action only 22 days after that agonising defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set epic at Roland Garros. Indeed, as he scampered and slid around the baseline, you felt the need to remind him he was in SW19, not the 16th arrondissement.
'I've been working hard to improve on my serve and I feel really comfortable with it right now,' he said.
'I've still got to prove to people I can play on grass. I think I showed it last year but there is more to do, and hopefully this is the year.
'I know how important tennis is for me and my life, but outside of tennis I've a life that's more important. I make the sacrifices to be ready for these tournaments and try and be the best I can. What happened in Paris wasn't easy but in some ways it was beautiful too – playing a match that meant so much to people.'
Alexander Zverev does not hide his frustration with Wimbledon. The third seed became the fourth top-ten player to exit in the first round, losing to a French player without a coach who had lost his previous three matches here.
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Arthur Rinderknech has a less than stellar record against top-five opponents but beat Zverev 6-7, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a match that did not finish on Monday night due to the All England Club's 11pm curfew.
Indeed, the match, which lasted four hours and 40 minutes, actually started in June and finished in July.
'I don't even know where to start. My legs are still shaking. I can't do this anymore,' said Rinderknech. 'We started yesterday at 8pm, finish now at 7. What a moment, such emotions.'
Zverev has never reached the last eight here – in stark contrast to his record in other Slams – and may well feel it is the Wimbledon referees' office, rather than the tennis gods, that has it in for him.
Taylor Fritz also had to return after his Monday match failed to finish before the lights were turned off, but the fifth seed came back from two sets down to beat France's Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4.