Jannik Sinner, even champions can make mistakes sometimes, and what happened proves it: he needs to get over it.
Let’s face it: everyone likes to fantasize. So does “embroidering.” Not literally, but figuratively. We love, for this reason, the sometimes romantic narratives that are made relative to facts and reports in the public domain. All that glitters is not gold, however. Some “things” are different from how they appear, or at any rate from how we had assumed they were.
This is the case, for example, of the two most talked about tennis players of the new generation, namely Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Right from the start, having been orphaned by the legendary duo composed of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, we were convinced that the Iberian and the Italian were their natural heirs. And in some ways they are. They will be, that much is certain, the two champions who will compete for the most prestigious titles on the circuit in the years to come. Those who will give rise, as they already have, to the most passionate and exciting challenges.
But their relationship, on closer inspection, does not trace too closely that which Rafa and Roger had established, who until the end of the Swiss’s career held – literally – each other’s hands. There is some underlying difference and it was obvious the moment the 4-time Slam champion was asked about the Sinner affair.
Alcaraz pulls out: “There’s a lot we don’t know ”
The tennis people, for one reason or another, expected Alcaraz to strenuously defend the world No. 1. That he would proclaim his innocence as, a few hours earlier, had Matteo Berrettini, who not even for a moment questioned his compatriot’s sincerity with respect to the alleged doping case mounted in recent days.
Carlos preferred to remain neutral instead. Not to take sides. A decision that, whether we like it or not, should be respected. “I believe in a clean sport – these are his words – but I don’t know enough about the affair. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of things we don’t know within the team, within the whole issue. But if they let Jannik play there will be a reason, they said he is innocent. That’s all I know and that’s what I can talk about.”
Words that may have hurt, although we do not know for sure, the man himself, who said the following at a press conference in New York: “I understand who is my friend and who is not. Those who know me know that I would never break the rules.” A sentence that seems to be addressed precisely to the Spaniard, with regard to whom, some time ago, he had declared “we are good friends.” Except that perhaps, unfortunately, he had taken the wrong end of the stick…