Top Seed Sinner: ‘If You Want to Stay at No. 1, You Have to Improve’

By Richard Osborn

Even Jannik Sinner, the 2024 Australian Open champion, the first Italian to reach No. 1 since the computerized singles rankings were introduced in 1973, experiences doubt.

It turns out that, even at the pinnacle of the sport, the week-in, week-out wins are never a sure thing. There’s always another hungry player, a Novak Djokovic, a Carlos Alcaraz, on your heels, plotting a dethronement.

“We all have doubts sometimes,” said the 22-year-old Sinner, who was raised in the shadow of the Dolomites and nearly chose skiing over tennis as a profession. “Even before I won a Grand Slam, I had some doubts if I could win one. Then you reach the point where you win it. After, in your mind, you know you can do it, but you still have to work a lot for that. If you want to hold the position, you have to improve. If you want to get better, you have to improve more than the others. It’s a balance of how much work you do and how much quality you can put into the work.”

The top seed at the Cincinnati Open, Sinner’s summer has been less than ideal. He won his first 16 matches of 2024, and rode that Melbourne momentum to three more titles in Rotterdam, Miami and Halle. But hip woes would surface in Monte Carlo, leaving him without much preparation for Roland Garros, where despite not feeling at his best he reached the semis. He was far from 100 percent at Wimbledon, stalling in the quarterfinals against Daniil Medvedev in five sets, 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3.

Then came one of the toughest decisions of his career. A bout with tonsillitis would force him to pull out of the Olympics, an event he had been looking forward to for years.

“The Olympics was my main goal for the season because I missed the last one,” he said. “This year, I felt like, because I was playing well at Roland Garros, that I could play good on that court, trying to give myself a chance for a medal. But sometimes you have to accept it.”

“Maybe sometimes you have a bit more stress, where your immune system goes down a bit. It’s all part of the sport. I have to be happy with what I have, not always looking on the negative side. I believe that my season is going in a very, very positive way. We’ll just keep building on that.”

Through he looked hobbled last week at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal, dropping a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 decision to Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals, Sinners says he’s looking forward to the challenge before him at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

“To reach this point, you have to be physical. Your general shape has to be perfect throughout the whole year to get to this position because it’s the result of playing consistent the whole year,”

said Sinner, who’s traditionally struggled in Cincinnati, his best showing being a third-round finish in 2022.

“But I’m looking forward to see my reaction this year. It’s a great test for me. I believe this tournament can give you a lot of confidence for the US Open, which is the last Grand Slam we have through the year. In my mind, this is a very important tournament.”

Doubt? Yes, Sinner indeed deals with doubt. But if his historic rise to No. 1 has shown him anything, it’s that if he keeps putting in the work, quality work; if he keeps striving for improvement, the results will come.

“Before, maybe I was doing four hours of practice a day with good quality, and the fifth hour was so-so. Now I can do five, six hours of quality. It means the mental side has improved, the physical side has improved. Hopefully, I can get back to this before the US Open because I always feel good on court when I practice a lot, and in my mind, I know that I can handle the practice sessions in a good way. This brings me confidence.”