Sinner, at worst the consolation prize will still be stratospheric: insane prizes in the California desert.
His aficionados are beside themselves. Because when you love someone as they love Jannik Sinner, a single minute seems impossibly long. Imagine then what their perception must have been of the two weeks since he played the Rotterdam semifinal. It must have seemed to them that a century had passed in between, up and down.
But don’t worry. If all goes well, Friday will be the big day. The one when we will be able to see for ourselves what effect the call for winter preparation has had and find out how belligerent the red fox from San Candido’s Indian Wells intentions are. That said, one can easily guess, since the stakes in the California desert are incredibly high. Sinner could overtake Carlos Alcaraz and ascend to no less than No. 2 in the world rankings, just a step away from Novak Djokovic and that throne on which all tennis players dream of one day sitting.
We don’t know if it will happen or not. We certainly hope so, but partly out of superstition, partly because in tennis you never know, it is better to keep quiet. Better to focus, in contrast, on the objective “things.” Because it is true that Jannik has better things to think about, namely precisely the race for the No. 1 ranking, but it is equally true that the Tennis Garden is chock-full so full of treasures you wouldn’t believe.
Sinner, at worst there’s stellar prize money
At a total of 8 million, the prize money up for grabs at the Indian Wells Masters 1000, the first of two events that converge in the so-called Sunshine Double. Stuff that even if it goes wrong can still be consoled with a pretty good haul.
Access to the first round of the tournament alone is worth the equivalent of 27.7 thousand euros. Those who enter the second round collect 38.7, while a hypothetical third round is worth 54.5 thousand euros. The figure doubles, or almost doubles, in case one manages to win the round of 16 in magical California: we are talking about, think about it, 93 thousand euros. The check for the quarters amounts to 170.6 thousand euros, but the best is yet to come.
In the not at all remote event that Sinner were to win the semifinals, he would take home 299 thousand euros. If he lands in the finals, he would have 539.5 thousand euros more in his bank account. What if he wins? Well, in that case we are talking about stellar prize money that amounts to, hear hear, the astronomical sum of 1 million 014 thousand 601 euros. Yes, all that glitters in Indian Wells is gold. And not just because of the sun, which also beats down hard in those latitudes.