Jannik Sinner took the difficult and controversial decision not to compete at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Jannik said that he had to spend that amount of time improving his game. The decision may have been a good one from a technical point of view, but it was a little bit of a disaster from a PR point of view.
The Controversy
Many did not like the fact that a 19-year-old relinquished the opportunity to represent his country at the Olympic Games. Also, Jannik comes from a very nice region in the north of Italy, South Tyrol, where many speak predominantly German and it was annexed to Italy after the first world war. For this reason, some (incorrectly) tend not to consider the people living in the region as “Italians.” Jannik Sinner also admitted that when he moved to Liguria to train with the Riccardo Piatti Academy, he could not speak and understand Italian very well.
Nevertheless, Jannik is “100%” Italian and he is more than happy to represent his country. Unfortunately, some fans’ refusal to play in the Olympics was seen as the confirmation that Jannik doesn’t really care about Italy.
Therefore, Jannik was heavily blasted on Instagram when promoting the well-known brand Lavazza in this video (comments inside the post).
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Jannik Sinner in 2021
Now the world no.23, the Italian played his last match on the 28th of June when he was overcome by world no.48 Marton Fucsovics 5-7 6-3 7-5 6-3 in the 1st round of the Wimbledon (draw).
Currently, during this year the Italian has achieved a compiled 24-13 record. This year, The Italian clinched 1 title in Melbourne. The Italian got to the final in Miami.