It’s red, and its spectacular.
It tumbles forth in a mop of cherubic curls.
Its one reason he is known as the Fox, a nickname he picked up in grade school.
HOLDING COURT“The higher ranked you are the more eyes there are on you." Sinner, currently ranked no. 2 in the world, wears a Gucci jacket, shirt and trousers.Fashion Editor: Edward Bowleg III
This is a talent, he said.
Sinner demonstrated the move in a two-part motion.
You put the hairs back likethis, he said, pulling his curls straight back and holding them down.
SKY HIGHGrowing up in Italy, Sinner got his start as a competitive skiier. He switched to tennis at age 12. Nike t-shirt and shorts
He showed me the maneuver again, this time at a faster clip.
When the hat is moving, thats when I know I have to go to the hairdresser.
Sinner is an athlete of multiple talents.
NATURAL WONDERSinner’s mop of hair has inspired his die hard fans to show up to his matches dressed in carrot costumes. Gucci jacket, shirt and trousers.
(Sesto is in South Tyrol, a largely German-speaking region, and German is Sinners first language.)
SKY HIGHGrowing up in Italy, Sinner got his start as a competitive skiier.
He switched to tennis at age 12.
Nike t-shirt and shorts
Sinners rankings in skiing had started to slip.
And then slowly I started to lose in skiing, because physically I was not ready to compete.
I was always quite skinny and everything.
Compared to the split-second margins of ski-racing, Sinner explained, tennis felt more forgiving.
The reason why I chose tennis was, in tennis you could make mistakes.
you’re free to lose points but you’re free to still win the match.
In skiing, if you make one mistake, one big mistake, you cannot win.
They had two kids, one dog.
I came into this family and it was a nice feeling.
So I just tried to keep going.
From one day to another I was changing my life.
Two years after he enrolled in Piattis academy, and already bored with junior events, Sinner went pro.
The 2019 season was a changer, as he put it.
I wanted to throw myself into the fire, he has said of that decision.
I wanted to try a different method.
He was always a really good fighter on the court, Vagnozzi said by phone from Milan.
He never loses belief.
There were weak sides to his game, though.
Really strong with his forehand and backhand, but it was not various.
Sinner also hired a new fitness coach, Umberto Ferrara, around the same time.
When I relayed this to Ferrara, he laughed.
I know, I know, Ferrara said.
But he is a very smart guy.
I dont know in English but in Italian we say big problem but is necessary.Un male necessario.
(A necessary evil.)
Two in particular left scars.
The other was at the 2023 U.S. Open.
He lost, painfully, to Alexander Zverev in the fourth round.
Tough moment for me mentally, because I felt like I was getting closer, Sinner said.
From that moment, I started to really work on myself.
What exactly did he work on?
The mental part, he said.
Its easy to say, He is strong mentally.
But in my mind I was like, I am strong mentally but I think I have to improve.
And so I started to accept my mistakes.
And trying really to work on these small little things, which at some point can make the difference.
Whatever he did, Sinners been on a tear ever since.
He won 20 of his last 22 matches of the 2023 season, including titles in Beijing and Vienna.
At the ATP Finals in Turin, he beat the unbeatable Novak Djokovic for the first time.
(Sinner ultimately lost to Djokovic in the last round.
It was the most-watched tennis match of all time on Italian television.)
His streak officially began in late November at the Davis Cup.
He beat Djokovic a second time and led Italy to its first Davis Cup title since 1976.
I lived this whole trip in Australia with very calmness, Sinner told me.
Even in his match against Djokovic?
Its a different match than most of the matches, he said.
Because you play against one who never lost a semifinal there.
Youre playing against one who won 24 Grand Slams.
So in your mind, you have to do the right thing.
Tactically, you have to be perfect.
Mentally also, because hes never gonna drop down.
I was just trying to play point after point with the right mentality.
Thats the only thing I can control.
At some point my goal was to keep him on court as long as possible, Sinner said.
Hopefully hes going to drop a little bit.
And thats the moment where I have to push, no?
I was waiting for my opportunities.
And I was waiting and waiting.
It never arrived and then it was getting closer.
As a visibly fatigued Medvedev started to make unforced errors, Sinner appeared to relax and take control.
I said, OK, now I feel confident again, he recalled.
And the crowd was getting a little bit to my side.
He won the third set, then the fourth.
Grand Slam final, fifth set, tough situation to be in, he went on.
But also thats what I practiced for in my mind.
I just have to be focused, no?
And I started to hit the ball really well.
Im so glad to have you there, he told his team.
But it is what it is.
Gucci jacket, shirt and trousers.
As Sinner sees it, one must make peace with the unrelenting pressure of competitive tennis.
This pressure, you have to take it in a positive way, he told me.
You have to be kind with the pressure.
You have to make friendship.
If you hate this pressure, its the wrong sport for you, no?
The really good and positive thing of tennis is, you have this momentum.
The momentum can be positive, happy.
And can be negative when you lose.
But you live in a momentum.
In my mind, everything goes quite fast.
The tennis schedule doesnt allow for regular trips home.
(Fried chicken and vanilla ice cream with berries for dessert.)
There was a lot of love, he told me.
The love snowballed after the Australian Open.
Pope Francis congratulated all of Italy for Sinners win.
You could feel that it was something big, Sinner said.
In the California desert, Sinner was back in the momentum.
Its an awesome feeling.)
A short-term objective was to put on even more weight.
We try obviously to get stronger, no?
But not, like, big.
Because I think my strength is the flexibility I have in my shots.
Perhaps with this in mind, Sinners father, Johann, was cooking lunch in the kitchen.
I left Sinner alone to change out of his tennis clothes.
In this story: groomer; Elayna Bachman; manicurist: Pilar Lafargue; tailor: Caroline Trimble
