Jannik Sinner's journey from number 553 to Grand Slam champion

With an incredible win over Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner took out the 2024 Australian Open men's title and became just the third Italian to win a Slam in men's singles. Sinner's win also puts an end to a lean period in Italian tennis that had lasted since 1976, when Adriano Panatta won the Roland Garros.

It wasn't easy for the Italian, as the first two sets were won by Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, and showed huge weaknesses in Sinner's game, especially when it came to serving. For a while it looked as though it would be a one sided affair.

In front of Sinner for those first 2 sets was a practically perfect Medvedev. But the Russian didn't enjoy an easy run at the Melbourne tournament at the end of the second set Medvedev was looking tired, and perhaps starting to feel the effects of the 24 hours he had spent on the court collectively in these two weeks.

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Adding to the Russian's tiredness is the fact that, from the third set, Jannik Sinner seemed to find his groove. He found the first serve again, also scoring 14 aces, but, above all, he rediscovered his winning minset, demonstrating, as underlined by the official profile of the Australian Open on X, "calm and composure in the chaos".

Speaking to Supertennis, Simone Vagnozzi, Sinner's coach, explained: "Practically the errors [by Medvedev, ed.] were not there, so Jannik found himself in a bit of difficulty. At 5-1 in the second set, when Jannik broke Medvedev the inertia changed."

The rest, then, is history: Medvedev was less and less effective and Sinner managed to close the 3rd and 4th sets 6-4 6-4, and then also win the fifth and final 6-3. After almost four hours of play, Sinner walked away with an extraordinary Grand Slam comeback win.

It was a big moment for Italian tennis and an even bigger moment for Sinner, and the usually reserved 22-year-old did not hesitate in showing his emotions, falling to the ground before running up to the stands to celebrate with his team.

"[I want to thank] my team, everyone who is in this box and also watching from home who works with me. We are trying to get better every day, even during the tournament we tried to get stronger, trying to understand every situation a little bit better," he was reported as saying by Channel Nine's Wide World of Sports in Australia.

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The Sinner team is made up of a close-knit group, which includes, among others, the aforementioned Simone Vagnozzi (coach who in 2018 guided Cecchinato to victory in the Roland Garros semi-final against Djokovic), Alex Vittur (manager), Umberto Ferrara (athletic trainer), Giacomo Naldi (physiotherapist) and, from 2022, as "supervising coach" Darren Cahill (former world number 22 and former coach of champions such as Hewitt).

But, after thanking his trainers, Italy's new champion had to thank his parents Hanspeter and Siglinde (top left), for the many sacrifices they had made: "I have made some, but they have made some too: leaving your child at 13 is not very simple."

Photo: Instagram @janniksin

Sinner's story, ultimately, is similar to many of the stories of his colleagues in ATP – a path made of difficult choices, hard work and painful separations in search of a dream. He was just 13 years old when Riccardo Piatti (pictured), Andreas Seppi's coach, convinced the Sinner family of Jannik's talent and took the young boy to train under his mentorship in Bordighera.

Sinner hails from San Candido in Italy's north, a place where children are said to ski before they can walk. And this is what happened to the boys of the Sinner family. The mountains were Jannik's first love and where he honed his competitive spirt, though he also enjoyed playing football in his formative years. But it was tennis that eventually became his passion.

Photo: Instagram @janniksin

"I wish that everyone could have my parents because they always let me choose whatever I wanted to and even when I was younger, they never put pressure on myself," he said, as reported by Fox Sports. "I wish this freedom is possible for as many young kids as possible, so thanks so much to my parents."

With his family's support behind him, Sinner competed in his first Futures at the age of 14, and would win his first Challenge at 17. The results weren't remarkable at first, as commented by the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, but things started to come together in 2019. From number 553, he closed the season climbing the ATP rankings to the 78th position.

The following year (2020) he won his first ATP title in Sofia and reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. At the ATP finals in 2021, he replaced Matteo Berrettini who had to pull out due to injury where he would eventually be knocked out by Daniil Medvedev. In 2021, he entered the ATP Top 10 rankings.

Sinner has shown tremendous improvement in a relatively short period, fixing up all the weak points of his game. Powerful on both the forehand and the backhand, Jannik and his team know well that it takes a well-rounded game to become a champion.

In 2023, all the work began to bear fruit: he won his seventh title in Montpellier, then the National Bank Open in Toronto, the China Open, and a title in Vienna before leading Italy to victory in the Davis Cup. He finished the year as number 4 in the world.

Finally, 2024 opens with a victory at the Australian Open, an impressive achievement for Jannik and Italian tennis. "Sitting here with this trophy now, watching it, it's one of the biggest trophies we have in our sport," he said in his press conference as reported by the Daily Mail.

But like any elite athlete he keeps his feet on the ground: "On the other hand I also know that I have to continue working for other opportunities", he added.

Sinner's story probably has other chapters to write, but it seems that there is still a lot of that 13-year-old boy, ready to make sacrifices and work hard to achieve true greatness.

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