‘Physically I was not ready to compete,’ Jannik Sinner reveals the real reason he chose tennis over skiing in his childhood
Like tennis, Italian sensation Jannik Sinner excelled at skiing too and, as a child, he often used to compete in matches. However, he switched to tennis at the age of 12 and now has finally thrown light on this decision.
During an exclusive interview with Vogue, Sinner revealed why he chose tennis over skiing despite winning a lot of competition, including a national championship at the age of eight. The 22-year-old said being a skinny boy back then made it difficult for him to compete.
I won a lot when I was young at skiing, and in tennis, I never won. And then slowly I started to lose at skiing because physically I was not ready to compete. I was always quite skinny and everything. Jannik Sinner told Vogue
Another reason for his preference for tennis is that the sport allowed him to make a lot of mistakes. After this change, he moved to Bordighera to train at Riccardo Piatti‘s academy.
The reason why I chose tennis was, in tennis, you can make mistakes. You can lose points, but you can still win the match. In skiing, if you make one mistake, one big mistake, you cannot win. Jannik Sinner added
Jannik Sinner has won three out of four tournaments so far this season
Jannik Sinner is having the best campaigns this year in almost all the tournaments he has played. Except for the Indian Wells (where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals), Sinner has emerged victorious in the other three tournaments he played. He previously reached the Miami finals in 2021 and 2023 but lost to Hubert Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev respectively.
