Jannik Sinner: Jim Courier still makes discussion on the'Azure.

American tennis legend Jim Courier, ahead of Jannik Sinner’s debut at Roland Garros, has returned to talk about the world number one Blue, reclaiming his definition of a “cold-blooded killer” that he had made in the past against the South Tyrolean. “I have said it many times on TV: I consider Jannik a murderer. He’s one of those guys who walks down the street without showing emotion, he can walk through the shadows, people might not notice him, and the next thing you know — bang, you’re dead. He pulled out his gun or slit your throat and has already moved on to the next target. That’s a compliment, huh. It’s a great compliment,” he told claytenis.com.

“He’s so focused on doing his job and he completely takes emotion out of the equation. Sometimes emotion takes over what people are able to do and prevents them from achieving what they want. This is not going to happen to him. He will lose tennis matches-we saw that he lost one of the most dramatic ones we will ever remember at Roland Garros last year-but it was not his emotional state that cost him that match. It was the fact that Alcaraz, especially in the tie-break, played some of the best tennis we will ever see. Jannik got a little nervous, , but only a little bit compared to someone who sometimes can’t even get in that position. So I consider his ability to control his heart rate in very high-stress situations a magical skill that he possesses.”

Courier explained that Sinner’s greatest strength is his mentality: “His ability to stay focused and maintain concentration. I’m talking both inside the games, in the small moments of the matches, and in the big picture, when you’re looking at everything from 10,000 feet up: he was able to compartmentalize and play so well despite having the suspension for the doping case hanging over his head. When none of us knew what was going on, it must have been incredibly stressful, and yet he still managed to perform.”

Comparison with the Big Three: “I think in so many ways he not only borrowed the game from them, but also the mentality and the mental approach. And I think the coaching staffs that he’s had around him, from Riccardo Piatti and his team to the current team with Simone and Darren, have a tremendous amount of experience on how to help a player prepare to survive all the difficulties, not only on the court but also off the court, related to being on top of the mountain. So I think it’s perfectly in the conversation among the strongest mentally that we’ve ever seen.”