“Teacher, I made a decision… I was shocked” – Libero Quotidiano

He was the second coach of Jannik Sinner, in Brunico. He raised him before the now 22-year-old moved to Bordighera, in Liguria, to train in the sports center of former coach Riccardo Piatti. Heribert Mayr was able to hug the tennis player again on Tuesday, when he returned to Bolzano for the party that made him an honorary citizen.

“I was invited, an emotion – his interview with Fanpage – The last time I saw him in Paris, at Roland Garros two years ago. Then many things changed”. The first meeting between the two took place “at 7-8 years old, in which it was immediately seen that Sinner had something more than the others – says Mayr – I trained him until he was 13, until he left here.”

The turning point was when “he was the Italian ski champion – says Jannik’s second coach – We were in spring, he came to me and said: ‘Master, I have made a decision‘. I feel bad about it, I wonder what decision he made. And he: ‘I’ll stop skiing. I stayed shocked in the beginning, his life was all about skiing. And it went well.” Jannik was good after all: “He won all the tournaments, or came second when he competed with the older ones, he always reached the semi-finals, or the final – his thoughts – At the Italian Under 12 championships, there too , training twice a week reached the semifinals. Same thing at the Under 13 championships in Avezzano: semi-final there too.”

With Sinner, Mayr worked “on the timing on the ball – he says – I tried to make some corrections and he immediately put them into practice, there was no need to explain who knows what to him. He put himself there to try and he succeeded. “The qualities he already had” were the ability to read the opponent’s game – explains the coach – he had the vision of the game and the pitch. You didn’t have to tell him what to do, it came naturally to him“. As a child “he never sat still – he still paints it – he always had to do something. Climbing, playing football or tennis, or going skiing. Never still”. When he left home in 2013, to go to Piatti in Bordighera, Jannik “had a bit of nostalgia – concludes Mayr – When he was away for a couple of days it was fine, when he was away a little more, three-four days, you could see he was ill. He didn’t speak much, he was a bit sad. At the Under 12 championships his mother came down and calmed down.”