In an interview, Jannik Sinner talked about how he is now reaping the rewards of his early professional investments. At the Australian Open last month, the 22-year-old lived up to his expectations when he upset Daniil Medvedev in the final to win his first Grand Slam title.

However, Sinner’s rise to the top of the sport has not been like any other. He never participated in a single Slam at the junior level, in contrast to most of his professional peers, choosing instead to enter the professional tour in 2017 at the age of just 16.

Additionally, he stated in an interview that he decided to compete against better opponents by entering Challenger events rather than significant junior competitions.

Sinner said: “I have always liked to play against opponents better than me because it is the way to learn something new. I played in some junior tournaments when I was 15 and 16 years old. At that age, I was already focused on the future. Being in the top 10 in the junior ranking was not that important to me at that time. That’s why I didn’t play the Grand Slams either.”

Additionally, Sinner, who will play again this week at the Rotterdam Open, says that this rule has improved his mindset. He added: “I wanted to train myself to have difficult moments on a tennis court. Future tournaments were the way I understood to be a better player.”

Jannik Sinner in 2024

Now ranked no.4 (career-high), Jannik played his last match on the 28^th of January when he overcame world no.3 Daniil Medvedev 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3 in the final of the Australian Open to win his 12^th career title.

Presently, during this year the Italian has a compiled 7-0 match record. This year, Jannik lifted the trophy at the Australian Open.