Casper Ruud sneers at Italian soccer, and Jannik Sinner laughs it off
Jannik Sinner vs. Casper Ruud did not represent “only” the historic conquest of the Internazionali d’Italia by the South Tyrolean star, his sixth consecutive Masters 1000 and success against an opponent with whom the roster was and remains unblemished. The great challenge at the Foro Italico in Rome was in fact a new clash between Italy and Norway, an aspect emphasized after the match by the Scandinavian tennis player. Who, with his words, wrested a smile from his formidable rival punctually caught on camera.
“Congratulations to FIT, not only for Jannik but for the other incredible players you have. I can’t say the same for soccer at the moment. Sorry, but you lost to Norway and we have to make some jokes,” Ruud said after the match. The reference, of course, is to the 3-0 that Norway handed the Azzurri on June 6, 2025 in Oslo and the subsequent 4-1 in the San Siro away match played the following November 16. Two blowouts decisive for the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. And a clear reference also to Sinner, who could not hold back a bitter laugh when confronted with his colleague’s joke.
On the court, the 6-4, 6-4 final in one hour and forty-five minutes tells of a match that Ruud had tried to steer in his own favor in the very first games, even leading 2-0. Having regained his usual automatisms, however, Sinner won six of the next eight games to close out the first set in 49 minutes, before ramping up in the second fraction and putting on file a success that makes him the first Italian to win the Internazionali d’Italia since Adriano Panatta, who did it back in 1976, exactly fifty years ago.
A historic achievement that is also worth an absolute record: with his sixth consecutive Masters 1000 – after Paris 2025, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid – Sinner has become the first tennis player since Rafael Nadal, who succeeded in 2010, to win all three Masters 1000s on clay in the same year. A titanic feat that certifies the extraordinary continuity of performance of the South Tyrolean champion.
There was no lack, in the setting of the award ceremony, of a moment capable of bringing a smile to the audience at the Foro Italico. Trying to express his emotions in front of the Head of State, who was present at the ceremony together with Adriano Panatta, Sinner addressed Sergio Mattarella by calling him “Mr. Mattarella” instead of President. Mattarella himself smiled in delight at the little slip of the tongue, while the audience encouraged the champion not to be overwhelmed by emotion. It was a scene that confirmed how, off the field, Sinner remains a very normal guy, capable of getting as emotional and embarrassed as anyone else.
Emotions, for that matter, ran through the stands as well. In the very last bars of the final, Mom Siglinde – sitting next to Dad Hanspeter and Jannik’s girlfriend, Danish model Laila Hasanovic – lowered her head and covered her face, unable to contain her emotion. It was a gesture that did not go unnoticed by fans and came after an already emotionally intense tournament for the Sinner family: during the semifinal match against Daniil Medvedev, which began on Friday evening and ended only on Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Siglinde had had to leave the Central Court after the second set, too distressed to see her son suffering physically on the court. A sensitivity that evidently knows no respite even when Jannik triumphs.
