Jannik Sinner silences all haters

Jannik Sinner triumphs in Monte Carlo and returns number one in the world: on the court named after Rainier III of Monaco, the Inno di Mameli resounds during the award ceremony. Images of Azzurro singing the Italian anthem immediately went viral on social media and triggered the emotions and reactions of the millions of Italian fans who witnessed yet another feat of their champion.

“In the face of the jerks who continue to treat him as a foreigner,” “Tricolor high on the flagpole, Mameli’s anthem ringing out, Jannik singing it with us at home, and for a moment we are all number one in the world,” “Sing the anthem and shout yes too,” “Italian anthem on top of the world. Sinner an absolute phenomenon,” are some of the hundreds of messages about the Azzurro on X, Facebook and Instagram.

The final against Carlos Alcaraz ended with a score of 7-6, 6-3 in favor of the South Tyrolean, at the end of a hard-fought match affected by the wind. In the first set Sinner suffered an immediate break in the second game, but reacted quickly by counter-breaking Alcaraz in the third. The set then slipped all the way to the tie-break, where the Italian touched 5-2, saw the Spaniard come back up to 5-5, and then close on 7-5. In the second partial, after going down by a break in the third game, Sinner found the counterbreak in the sixth game and the decisive break in the eighth, bringing home the title.

A success worth double, not only for the trophy but also for the world ranking. With this triumph, Sinner snatched the number one spot from Alcaraz, rising to 67 weeks spent at the top of the ATP ranking against the Spaniard’s 66. A duel in the rankings that had already opened before the final, with the two champions stationary at 66 weeks each as world number one: at the end of the match, only one could tick off even in this peculiar statistic.