Jannik Sinner says he is ‘excited’ to be the player that everybody wants to beat on the Tour following his rise to the top of the rankings on Monday.
On Monday the 23-year-old became the first Italian in history to reach No.1 on the PIF ATP rankings. The milestone occurs during what is a breakthrough year for Sinner who claimed his maiden Grand Slam title in January before going on to win two more titles in Rotterdam and Miami. More recently, at the French Open, he reached the semi-finals before losing in five sets to Carlos Alcaraz who went on to win the title. So far this year he has won 33 out of 36 matches with two of those losses being to Alcaraz, as well as another to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo.
“In the beginning of the year, we said, ‘We are going hunting, and then we’ll see what we can catch.’ And this now is still the same,” Sinner told the Associated Press. “Every tournament is a great opportunity to show something new and to show, also, the (will) to win as much as we can. But you don’t forget, also, the process. If you want to become a better tennis player, sometimes you have to miss. Sometimes you have to lose.”
Sinner’s next challenge is dealing with the pressure of being the highest-ranked player in the world and trying to hold his position for as long as possible. It is never an easy task but the tennis star believes one of the most important tactics for him is to be unpredictable on the court.
“They don’t have nothing to lose anymore against me, and I have everything to lose, but this is the exciting part. And I like that. … You have to work on having new solutions on the court, and this is going to be hopefully my next step,” he explained.
“Trying to prepare myself in a way of being more unpredictable on court. This is what I want to learn in the next months.”
Celebrations will be limited for Sinner with Wimbledon getting underway in just three weeks. He reached the semi-finals of the event last year before losing to Novak Djokovic, who is the player he has taken the No.1 spot from. Djokovic is currently recovering from a knee injury and his attendance in this year’s tournament is still to be confirmed.
“I hope that Novak comes back as soon as possible. Hopefully he can, somehow, play Wimbledon because it would be a tough loss for Wimbledon not having him.” He said.
Sinner currently has a 945-point lead in the rankings over his nearest rival. He is currently one of eight Italian players currently ranked in the world’s top 100.
