Jannik Sinner: Secrets Revealed by His First Coach: “His Mom Wasn’t Happy”

Andreas Schonegger, Jannik Sinner’s first coach, told Tuttosport what the world No. 1 was like as a child: “Well-mannered, but also very lively and eager to have fun. And he’s stayed that way. When we see him today, I still recognize the person I met when he was four years old.”

“He had grit and a sharp mind. Even when playing soccer, from a very young age, he kept training: he’d go off on his own to shoot the ball at the goal. I think his strength lies precisely in never stopping, in always wanting to improve and move forward. If you’re athletic, you can reach certain levels faster in any sport. At first, his mom wasn’t very happy about letting him go, but Jannik had made up his mind. For me, it was a wonderful thing, a great source of satisfaction. We started to realize that this could turn into something really serious. In the end, it all worked out.”

“How much opportunism is there in the attitude of those who today claim Sinner’s Italian identity? This is something I can’t understand, because we here feel Italian and we are Italian. Given who I am, I would never want to be Austrian. Even though I speak German, that language shouldn’t determine who we are. That criticism was pointless, especially since certain decisions weren’t made by Jannik because he didn’t want to play for Italy,” he concluded.