The controversies against Jannik Sinner are all “bad and wrong”, both those concerning his Italian identity and his residence in Monte Carlo until he withdrew from the Davis Cup. Fiorello defended the tennis champion during his speech at the Entertainment Festival which closes today in Milan. «What do you mean he’s not Italian? He’s from South Tyrol and has that accent. I am Sicilian and I have my accent, Italy is beautiful for this – he said – That controversy is really ugly and wrong.” Fiorello then mentioned the issue of residence.
“There are 10,000 Italians who live in Monte Carlo and all the athletes of a certain level have residence there – he said – Sinner is not the first, even Ezio Greggio has one, Umberto Tozzi is the only one who has residence in Monte Carlo and pays taxes in Italy”. Regarding the controversy over the Davis Cup, Sinner “knows what he has to do, a champion like this must be managed well – he observed – even if I’m very sorry that he doesn’t do it”. Passionate about tennis, Fiorello then said that he met Sinner in 2020 while he was in Liguria for the first Sanremo Festival. «I went to Bordighera where Riccardo Piatti’s academy is and I already knew about Sinner – he recalled -. I said to Djokovic himself as a guest the night before, ‘tomorrow I’m going to play with Sinner’ and he replied that he knew him very well. I spent a day together with Jannik. He is an incredible person.” Piatti himself, the showman continued, “told me ‘he will become number one’.” «I actually saw him as frail but he transformed himself on the court, he struggled to play and win with me» he added jokingly and recalled having “juggled with Sinner, Djokovic, Serena Williams, Flavia Pennetta and Fabio Fognini, the greatest tennis talent of the last 30 years». «He is giving us joys that we tennis lovers would never have thought we would experience – concluded Fiorello -: today we have the number one in the world, and he is an Italian. This is enough for me. Seeing him playing with an Italian flag this big, what more do we want?”.