Bruno Barbieri annoyed during Jannik Sinner match: "I told him to stop"

Jannik Sinner boasts millions of fans scattered around the world, and among them is Bruno Barbieri, a very popular chef and popular cookbook writer. The chef from Medicina, a town some 40 kilometers from Bologna, is a huge fan of the South Tyrolean champion and even goes to see his matches when he can. It happened on the occasion of the Miami Open final against Jiri Lehecka.

“At one point the match seemed in the balance because today anyone can play the match of a lifetime against Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. Then he decides ‘that’s it’ and closes. Three plays and bye-bye. Over. Lehecka defeated. I was screaming like crazy, I came out without a voice,” Bruno Barbieri told Corriere della Sera.

Not everything, however, went right: “I was there with my friends and I was charged like a spring. Other than Barbieri: I was a real fan. Even sitting up high you could see very well, in fact better. Around me there were people eating hamburgers and fried chicken but I just wanted to see the match, so at one point I told them, “Now stop eating!”

“I’m definitely going to see it in Rome,” the chef continued, “then maybe Wimbledon but it’s more complicated there. I have connections everywhere now, though: coaches, people in the business. For the Miami final I couldn’t find tickets, I saw crazy prices like $20,000, then a journalist activated an incredible chain between Dubai and the coaches and in the end they gave me tickets for everything but Sinner. I found those at the last minute but it was epic because I am an absolute fan of his.”

Bruno Barbieri then revealed what he would do if he had the opportunity to spend time with Jannik Sinner: “I would take him to my Bologna and make him tagliatelle gratin with country ragout, the real kind with the eggs not yet fully developed and the innards. Stuff that after Zverev never sees the ball again. Other than post-match burgers.”