“What he always hides from his opponents”

“Sinner? He always hides his insecurities from his opponents and this is an advantage. He is humble, with a strong work culture, who dedicates himself entirely to training. An example of application, concentration and sacrifice. We all see Sinner winning on the pitch, but there are many who do it. However, he also represents a model off the pitch.” Comment like this Eating Angel in the interview with Fanpage regarding the 22-year-old tennis player from Sesto, who will face Pavel Kotov in the round of 32 of the Masters 1000 in Rome on Monday 29 April. The first time the Sky journalist saw Jannik play, “I was struck by the concentration, confidence and tranquility he had on the pitch – his words – It was different, I had seen him play for the first time at the Foro Italico against Musetti and he was a player who, being only 17 years old, did not show emotions. I liked his mental capacity, he already seemed like a made player to me.”

You could see that behind Sinner’s performances “there was a wonderful job by Riccardo Piatti, because he was coached by him at the time. He had remarkable game fluidity and ball speed, despite having little muscle.” Also in my heart is the match of Miami vs. Griekspoor, interrupted due to rain. “There he managed to win the match – said Mangiante – I was struck by the way in which he challenged himself, because he was losing the first set and was in difficulty in the second. He asked his coaches to share ideas, at that moment he agreed to be guided tactically by the coach and you could see the face of the one who would find a key to winning. I am struck by his analytical ability: even in moments of great difficulty he always finds a way to overcome problems.”

In traditional tennis, however, there is a lot of talk about the need to introduce innovations into the game: “Some innovations, if they are functional, are fine, but then maximum respect for the sacredness of the game and total silence – said Mangiante again – This doesn’t disturb me , as opposed to different solutions on the rules such as shortening the sets, bringing them to 4 and so on. It’s as if in football we decided to move to 60′ matches: you can’t change the history of a sport radically.” And on the bad boys in tennis “for example Rune who is a bit of a border player, I say no – the journalist continued – Tennis doesn’t need bad boys, but players like Sinner, Nadal, Federer, that is, champions of correctness and respect. Let’s hold onto the sacredness of tennis in the most classic way, because this will remain its strength and uniqueness in sport.”

In the interview with Fanpage, Mangiante finally closed with a final anecdote: “It dates back to when I was playing and I will always remember it – he said – I had lost in the last qualifying round of an ATP tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. I was the first Lucky loser in case of a forfeit on the board. We were three Italians, there was Alessandro De Minicis and Massimo Cerro. We slept together. There was a downpour that postponed the matches and Massimo Cerro, who was on the scoreboard, saw the flooded fields, took his bicycle and went for a ride around the city. Within a short time, however, the sun suddenly came out and in three quarters of an hour they dried all the fields for the games to be played. The referee called Cerro onto the pitch, but Cerro wasn’t there.”

At the time, however, “there were no cell phones and we didn’t know how to warn him – concluded Mangiante – Desperate, we looked for him everywhere. The supervisor told us that if he hadn’t come in it would have been the first one’s turn LuckyLoser which was me, otherwise the second one who was a German would have entered the field. If I hadn’t accepted I would have lost the prize money and the hospitality, so at that point, although I was very sorry for my friend, I had to make myself available. They sent me onto the pitch, I started dribbling and then off I went. First 15 of the match and I hear someone shouting outside the circle: it was Cierro who was returning at full speed on his bicycle. Too late though, because I had started. But in that moment I understood the fleeting nature of life. Anything can always happen.”