Jannik Sinner, the latest after his illness: training behind closed doors and pre-tactics before the quarter-finals against De Minaur

They spotted him around four in the afternoon, heading to training. “I’m better.” The face has regained color, the smile is full again. The name of Jannik Sinner is not marked in the tournament agenda which records the bookings of the courts, a bit of alarm has spread (a little, he would say), the illness in the eighth with Rune had a great echo here too, in Australia, where at the hot they are used to. “I too risked dying,” the Dane told the friendly press, but it was the tremors of the world number one that had the fans and the tennis community in turmoil.

Sinner’s pre-tactics: training behind closed doors

Since even the ibexes of the Dolomites know how to do pre-tactics, everything happens quickly and discreetly: at 4pm (the same time as Wednesday’s warm-up, a few hours before the quarter-final against Central From Minaur) the Sinner group slips into a secondary indoor field, under the shed. Training behind closed doors (it’s nothing new, it’s also used in Davis) and without a sparring partner, so as not to give any point of reference to rivals. The reason why Jannik was vague about the nature of the problem (“There is something, I’m fighting it”), like Novak Djokovic after the battle with Alcaraz. These are the normal precautions of the favorites dealing with physical problems, it happens in every sport.

Only the most faithful are allowed on the field. Coaches Vagnozzi and Cahill (added to the list of possible successors Goran Ivanisevicwho broke up with Rybakina), the trainer Panichi, the physio Badio and Alex Meliss, the new social media manager, from South Tyrol like Jannik and Alex Vittur, who is close to the player like an older brother, very scared by Monday’s blunder. The worst seems to be behind us, but there is no point in taking risks: just a light dribble with the two coaches, forty minutes of tennis reactivation to keep the feeling of the ball on the racket alive after the great effort with Rune, a match of pure suffering. Faces relaxed, conjectures (for now) evaporated. The opinion from Rome of the Federtennis doctor, Emilio Sodano, does not help to clarify: «I would exclude dehydration, I don’t even think of a drop in blood pressure. Labyrinthitis? No, it makes you very dizzy. Rather, I think of an anxious reaction to an unexpected illness.” At the end of the tournament, Sinner will tell what happened to him, if he wants. The last complete check up, in June before the Olympics in which he did not participate, had not raised alarm bells.

The priority is now called Alex De Minaur. Australian from Sydney, 25 years old, no. 8 in the world, Uruguayan father and Spanish mother, raised in Alicante, engaged to his English colleague Katie Boulterperfectly at ease on fast outdoor tracks. The Rod Laver arena is his pitch. And the good run-up at the Australian Open, where he reached the quarterfinals for the first time in his career, galvanized him: «I found the legs I had lost, previous records don’t count: with Sinner we will start from scratch» he says regardless of the nine crossings with the blue from 2019 (Next Gen final) to Malaga 2024 (Davis Cup semi-final), all ending up in the pockets of the red baron. Great player, Alex known as Demon, demon. But light. If Sinner has truly recovered his strength, and going on the pitch as an evening match is good news, he is destined to surpass the Australian in terms of muscle and brains. Seeing him serene and performing again, meanwhile, is already a relief.

January 21, 2025

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