Jannik Sinner’s Tactical (and Superstitious) Move, Following in Novak Djokovic’s Footsteps

On Monday, June 29, Jannik Sinner will kick off the schedule on Wimbledon’s Center Court. As is tradition, the defending men’s singles champion is set to open the tournament on the prestigious London stage. For the Italian, this will also mark his return to competition after nearly a month off following Roland Garros.

After his defeat at the Paris Grand Slam, the world No. 1 took a few days off, alternating them with the usual physical tests needed to best plan the second half of the season. The real news, however, concerns his preparation for Wimbledon: for the first time since he has been a regular on the major tour, Sinner will arrive at the Championships without having played a single official tournament on grass.

This is a departure from his past approach, but one supported by intense training. The South Tyrolean tennis player returned to Monte Carlo a few days ago, and in recent hours, several videos have circulated on social media showing him engaged in a training session with Holger Rune on a hard court. The Danish player himself shared the footage on his own social media channels. Details of his preparation schedule have not been disclosed, but a key part of it will be his participation in the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic, an exhibition tournament scheduled for June 23–27 on the lawns of London’s exclusive Hurlingham Club.

While this is a first for Sinner, heading straight to Wimbledon without playing any warm-up tournaments is not an unusual practice among the top players on the circuit. Novak Djokovic, for example, after his first London triumph in 2011, played official grass-court events leading up to the Championships only in 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, between 2022 and 2025, the Serbian used the Hurlingham Club as a warm-up event for the tournament.

This strategy confirms that the most experienced and established players can reach peak form even without playing official matches during the preparatory phase. Sinner will now try to follow this path. His extraordinary streak of 30 consecutive victories came to an end at Roland Garros, but scheduling remains one of the key aspects in the careers of great champions. The Italian’s goal is to arrive in the best possible condition for the season’s most prestigious grass-court event and to play a leading role in writing another historic chapter in his career and in Italian tennis.