Jannik Sinner seems to be destined for greatness and according to his coach Riccardo Piatti talking to Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova was very important for his advancement. The 19 years old has just reached the Miami Open final playing fantastic tennis. However, what is uncharacteristic is that nobody is really surprised by his run despite his age.
Talking with Nadal and Sharapova
Riccardo Piatti has always stated that Jannik has to spend as much as he can with top champions so as to understand their winning mentality.
Riccardo recalled an interesting dinner that Jannik had with Maria Sharapova and Marat Safin sometime ago. It was the time Maria was training with Piatti.
“I wanted Jannik to understand the mentality of a No. 1. Maria has priorities. When she is on the court, she is watching the ball, hitting the ball and doing everything perfectly. When she plays points, she’s focused to play the points. When she’s off the court, she’s focussed on the fitness part, the physical part. When she finishes everything, she’s social,” said Piatti.
“Maria is an example that she has a great mentality to be a champion.”
Jannik also spent 14 days in Adelaide training with Rafael Nadal right before the last Australian Open. That was a key experience for the young Italian to understand the mentality of a tennis Legend.
Sinner in Miami, ranking, and results in 2021
At the moment ranked no.31 (career-high), the Italian has achieved an overall 14-4 match record in 2021. Sinner is competing in Miami where he conquered Hugo Gaston 6-2 6-2, Karen Khachanov 4-6 7-62 6-4, Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3 6-2, Alexander Bublik 7-65 6-4 and Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 6-4 6-4.
Jannik Sinner will play the world no.37 Hubert Hurkacz in the final on Sunday at 1 pm on Grandstand. In the past, they have never played each other till now in top events.
Jannik clinched 1 title in 2021 in Melbourne.
Rafael Nadal in 2021
Now ranked no.3, Nadal played his last match on the 17th of February when he surrendered to world no.5 Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6 2-6 7-6(4) 6-4 7-5 in the quarter of the Australian Open (draw).
At the moment, during this season Rafael owns a 4-1 match record.
Jannik Sinner and Rafael Nadal squared off only on 1 occasion. Their record is 1-0 for Nadal. When they played, Rafael Nadal won 7-6(4) 6-4 6-1 in the quarter in Paris (French Open) in October 2020.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.
