Who said that heroes necessarily have to show the beautiful and cursed grin? In a world that runs at the speed of light, where form often overwhelms substance, we are always hunting for the sensational gesture, transgression, genius and its recklessness. Well, Jannik Sinner, light years away from this type of profile, is the demonstration of how one can be normal and successful. It is not always necessary to be “dirty” to win the hearts of enthusiasts. Here, the blue tennis player is a positive hero who, if anything, accompanies substance with form: and they travel arm in arm, in a coherent way. Clean in game and soul, without excess. A silent dominator with his light but apparently awkward gait (having it…), because Mother nature has endowed him with a slender physique that Jannik is trying to fill with the gym (and not just with baby carrots: that would be the case to remove the Roger Rabbit label, because there is more to it than red).
A godsend for Italy. And for world tennis
With a champion like that, everyone benefits. Starting with Italy, which has been searching for a messiah for too many decades. Indeed, the feeling is that Sinner will soon be able to defeat the competition of its ancestors (above all Panatta and Pietrangeli) and aim for hitherto unexplored heights. Because not only today’s world travels at the speed of light but also the shots of the national team’s number one. Now it’s convenient for everyone to get on the winners’ bandwagon, but it took Job’s patience on his part (yet another demonstration of maturity) to support the winds that blew from a friendly direction (?): first the controversy over the alleged lack of ” Italianity”, then the ruminations following the choice to skip the Olympics in 2021, then the forfeit in the preliminary stages of the Davis Cup and the change of the technical staff. And down bludgeons and editorials against the one who, yes, would have become a champion, but at the same time “how can you refuse the call… of the Homeland?”. Positions that are now anachronistic (in some ways disturbing), but which evidently still find space. There’s more fun in winning after having digested a few things like that.
A pleasure for Italy, certainly, but not only. Why Sinner, like the Spanish Alcaraz, can receive the baton of the sacred monsters who preceded or flanked him such as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Jannik attracts sympathies that go far beyond the confines of his home. And he does it without that sneer, without breaking rackets, offending chair judges or glaring at the tenants of his corner with evil glances. If there is something to incinerate, if anything, it is the opponents’ tennis. Yes, he does this very well. For all this and for what you will show to Italy and the world: “Thank you Jannik”.