Marco Panichi doesn’t hold back when it comes to Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner’s former trainer, Marco Panichi, spoke out in an interview with Ubitennis about the Italian player’s injury, which will keep him sidelined until 2027 due to a knee problem. “When you’re constantly playing at the highest level and at a very demanding pace, the risk of injury is always there,” said the former member of the South Tyrolean’s coaching staff.

“What happened could easily have happened even while he was training with me. But I don’t know the full details, and it’s not easy to pass judgment. Unfortunately, when you’re constantly pushing yourself to the limit… That’s just how competitions are these days.”

“Jannik, like everyone else, has certain physical attributes that allow him to do things others might not be able to,” Panichi continued. “But the same goes for Nole. We’re not talking about people with super-muscular physiques, because that’s not the point. It’s more a matter of optimizing the physical resources you have. Perhaps you need to find a few periods where you can recover from the effort, so you can then continue to build up the workload and eventually return to playing competitively.”

Sinner’s knee problem is the “classic runner’s injury,” noted the former trainer of the world No. 1. “It’s inflammation caused by overuse. Above all, if your foot strike isn’t quite right, over time this little band of tissue that attaches to the side of the knee can become inflamed at the insertion point. It’s annoying because if it becomes chronic, it takes a little longer to get rid of it.”