“Sinner’s fault,” the Serb is set to make his Roland Garros debut amid a thousand doubts: here are the words of the former athletic trainer.
The fact that during this 2024 he has not put any titles in his trophy cabinet is in itself a source of great concern. After all, Novak Djokovic, current world number one in the Atp rankings, has not accustomed us to such long abstinences. The Serbian champion recently turned 37: a significant age, so to speak, for someone who wants to compete at the highest level as he does, but it must also be said that until a few months ago Nole was the “cannibal” we have come to know for almost two decades now.
In 2023 Djokovic won no less than three Slams, losing Wimbledon only by a few details: the very final with young phenom Carlos Alcaraz was hotly contested. Reason why we are talking in any case about a tennis player who not even a year ago came close to the mythological Grand Slam, also winning the Turin Finals by beating the “host” Jannik Sinner in the final. The 22-year-old from Alto Adige, however, had to wait only a week to take his revenge. Last November you will all remember the sensational comeback in the Davis Cup semifinals in Malaga, with the Italian able to retake a match after finishing down 0-40 in the deciding game. Despite having as many as three match ponts in front of him, Djokovic did not take advantage of even one of them. A bad slip that probably put more than one bug in his head.
“Sinner’s fault,” Panichi reveals, “That defeat hurt him. “
Yes, because since then Nole has never been the same. In January came a new, searing defeat against Sinner in what is “his” Slam, the Australian Open and where he had not lost in 33 consecutive matches.
In subsequent tournaments, the Serb appeared the distant relative of the player who until a few months earlier was sweeping every opponent and showing that he could hold his own against even the new phenomena on the circuit. It was a decline that also caused him to make some important decisions, such as the one to give coach Goran Ivanisevic and other staff members the boot. Among them was athletic trainer Marco Panichi, who was interviewed by broadcaster SuperTennis before the start of Roland Garros. “I believe that from the mental point of view, the match lost to Sinner in the Davis Cup was paid for by Nole more than any other,” were his words, later also reported by the Tennis World Italia portal.