The China Mail - Jannik Sinner, the atypical Italian star on top of the tennis world

An eighth tournament win of the season came in a near perfect year for Sinner who started 2024 by winning his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open and never looked back from there.

Long considered Italian tennis' great red-haired hope, few could have imagined this year's sudden burst to the top of the world rankings ahead of Spain's golden boy Carlos Alcaraz, himself a four-time Slam champion at the age of 21.

The 23-year-old is set to be Alcaraz's main rival in the years to come, the pair stepping up as Rafael Nadal retires and Novak Djokovic ends a year without an ATP Tour title for the first time since 2006.

"Jannik hits a faster ball than Novak. He doesn't let you breathe. With Novak you can play rallies... and not be terrified of Novak ripping, like, a bomb down the line or cross-court," said Casper Ruud after being destroyed by Sinner in the semi-finals on Saturday.

"Everything in his game improved. I mean, this year it seems like he stepped up with every aspect."

However Sinner's status as national hero was in doubt as recently as this time last year, his origins in the German-speaking areas of the South Tyrol and residence in Monaco casting doubt on whether he was Italian at all.

Sinner was born in Innichen, or San Candido, which is a stone's throw from the Austrian border, his attachment to his home nation has been frequently questioned by former Italian tennis players and local media.

The criticism of a perceived lack of patriotism reached a crescendo in September last year when he dropped out of Davis Cup matches played in Bologna, saying that he didn't have time to recover from tournaments played in North America.

But those doubts were magically swept aside when he surged to the final of the 2023 ATP Finals -- where he fell to Djokovic after beating the 24-time Grand Slam champion in the group stage -- and was then key to Italy eventually winning the Davis Cup for the first time since 1976.

- Running from fame -

Now Sinner's face can been seen almost everywhere in Italy, where he is universally lauded and is almost omnipresent in advertising for products ranging from broadband internet to coffee brand Lavazza and fashion house Gucci.

However he is far from the more outgoing stars of Italian sport like motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi, World Cup-winning footballer Alessandro Del Piero or alpine skiing star Sofia Goggia.

Sinner is quiet and reserved and keeps his personal life away from the spotlight as much as possible, saying very little about his relationship with fellow tennis player Anna Kalinskaya even after her former boyfriend Nick Kyrgios disparagingly referred to her as "second serve".

"You know that I don't like to talk much about my private life. I'm with Anna, but we keep everything very private. I won't say more about it," Sinner said in August.

A career in professional tennis was not a given for Sinner as he was a champion skier as a youngster and still enjoys the sport in the off-season.

He was also a keen footballer, playing for local team AFC Sexten as an attacker until he decided to commit to tennis while still a boy.

"Whenever he had the ball he left people with their mouths wide open. No one could understand how a child could have so much quality," his former football coach Helmut Villgrater told the Gazzetta Dello Sport in January.

But he quickly took to tennis and at 13 years old he moved some 600 kilometres away from his family to Bordighera on the Italian Riviera in order to start his long march to the elite levels of the game.

However Sinner's year has not quite been perfect.

He has been dogged by controversy after twice testing positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March.

Hanging over his head for next season is the World Anti-Doping Agency's appeal against his initial exoneration, the global body asking for Sinner to be banned for up to two years.

I.Taylor--ThChM--ThChM