ROME – Jannik Sinner’s decision not to play for hosts Italy in the Davis Cup Final 8 is being met with a sense of abandonment in his home country – where he was fiercely defended during his doping case earlier this year.
Second-ranked Sinner, who led Italy to tennis’ biggest team trophy for the past two years, said he would rather prepare for next season rather than help the Azzurri push for another title in Bologna next month.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but after Turin (where the ATP Finals are played the week before the Davis Cup) the aim is to get off to a good start in Australia,” Sinner said, referring to the Australian Open, where he is the two-time defending champion.
“It doesn’t seem like it, but a week of preparation in that period can already make a difference,” Sinner told Sky Italia on Monday from Vienna, where he is playing this week. “We already won the Davis Cup in 2023 and 2024 and this time we decided that way with my team.”
The headline on the front page of Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport translated as follows: “Sinner, think again.”
An accompanying editorial in the Gazzetta took Sinner to task for saying he had already won the Davis Cup twice, and pointed out how he also defended his title at a lucrative exhibition in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
“So you won’t go back to Riyadh for another $6 million? If you win another Wimbledon, you won’t go to London again? Pasta, coffee… Every five minutes you promote an Italian product. Do it with tennis too,” the Gazzetta editorial said, referring to the many Italian brands Sinner represents in TV and other ads.
92-year-old Nicola Pietrangeli, two-time French Open winner and Italy’s most successful player until Sinner came along, added: “It’s a big slap in the face of the Italian sporting world.”
Italians widely defended Sinner when he was handed a three-month doping ban in February, while other top players insinuated that he received preferential treatment because of his high status and that the timeframe of the ban prevented him from missing any Grand Slam tournaments.
On the front page of Corriere della Sera, another critical editorial translated Sinner’s first name to “Gianni,” a reference to the time almost a century ago when Germanic cities were forced to adopt Italian names under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Sinner has faced discrimination
It is not the first time that Sinner has been criticized for not representing Italy. It happened when he didn’t play the Davis Cup in 2023 and it happened when he didn’t play in the Paris Olympics a year later.
Growing up in the German-speaking autonomous province of Alto Adige in northern Italy, Sinner has also had to deal with the underlying feeling that he is not fully Italian.
Just last month, an Italian rapper was accused of inciting racial hatred for publishing music lyrics stating that Sinner speaks with ‘Adolf Hitler’s accent’. Fedez, the rapper, later apologized.
Adriano Panatta, who led Italy to their only other Davis Cup victory in 1976, defended Sinner’s choice, noting that team competition is not considered as important as it was in his playing days.
“Today’s tennis requires players to have complete dedication. The players are like CEOs of companies that bear their names,” Panatta wrote in Corriere della Sera. “Sinner has won the Davis Cup twice and now he needs a break to prepare for his main goals: winning Slams, playing at the level of (Carlos) Alcaraz, regaining No. 1. Those are his priorities.”
Paolo Bertolucci, who also played on the 1976 team and is now a TV commentator, agreed with Panatta.
“I don’t see anything wrong in the decision,” Bertolucci told Gazzetta. “Tennis has changed. What counts today are the four Slams and then the ATP Finals. The rest is secondary.”
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