In a witty comment directed towards youngster and now Australian Open Champion Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic labels him as just a nice sparring partner.
Djokovic’s words from a four-year-old ceremony would come back as Jannik Sinner would go on to become one of the elite young talents of the game along with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune.
An old video surfaced on the web recently of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic calling Italian youngster Jannik Sinner nothing but an impressive sparring partner. The interesting albeit funny statement from Novak raised a huge number of impressions from the tennis world as well.
A Twitter user helped translate the tweet for the wider English-based tennis audience. The presenter asks Novak to give his opinion of the young and talented Jannik. To which, Novak responds by saying that for him, he was like a ‘hitting partner’.
An interpretation of the statements were presented as follows:
Question: “Do you like Sinner?”
Djokovic: “Yeah. For me, he is like a hitting partner…”
The Serbian World No.1’s comments aged like milk as his Italian ‘hitting partner’ Sinner would hand him his first loss in over five years at the Australian Open. Sinner beat the Serb with a score of 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, in the semifinals of the year’s first major in Australia.
Did Novak Djokovic himself help to create the Novak-killer? Is Jannik really that guy?
Italian tennis sensation, Jannik Sinner has defeated the current World No.1 and probably the greatest player, Novak Djokovic to ever play the game three out of four times now. But what has been his big secret?
Jannik Sinner overcame Novak in the semifinals of the Australian Open last month, putting an end to Novak’s 33-game win streak in the competition. But this wasn’t the first time, he had handed the Serbian a defeat. In fact, Sinner has been on a run against Djokovic as of late. He has defeated him thrice in their last four match ups.
While far from being called the Novak-killer, Sinner has shown promise that he might be the most equipped guy when facing Novak.
After his dominant win over Novak in the semis, Sinner was questioned by his on-court post-match interviewer about his strategy that helped him take down the mighty Serb once again and what has been working in his favour against the World No. 1.
To which, Sinner replied that he should ‘Ask him’, pointing towards Novak. The interviewer, Jim Courier, then said that it was funny that Jannik said that because in 2021, after his first loss against the Serb, the Italian’s coach had gone up to Novak to ask how Jannik could up his game.
Sinner confirmed the story and said that Novak had helped him even before that and had always shown him wisdom when needed.
“This story is true, and I had the chance already when I was younger, 17, 16 to practice with him in Monaco. And I think already there the process of trying to learn from the best players in the world started. Then, obviously, the match is different, he told me after the match try to move the ball a little bit more, not being a little bit predictable,” Sinner said.
