Jannik Sinner, Master Of The Coping Mechanism
What Sinner did at Wimbledon this year goes way beyond clinching that title. The Italian mastered his brain, denying Paris the power to leave a scar. And now Carlos Alcaraz really has a rival.
Welcome back! In this edition, it’s all about the men’s final at Wimbledon. A final that may have elevated Jannik Sinner’s champion profile even more. And left Carlos Alcaraz with some problem-solving duties.
This publication is supported by readers, so if you like what you’re reading, don’t hesitate to spread the word, try a paid subscription, like this post, or leave a comment, as it helps TSS discoverability. You can also prefer to buy me a cuppa!
WIMBLEDON (H)
Jannik Sinner, Master Of The Coping Mechanism
The Italian, from Roland-Garros hell to Wimbledon salvation, gave a quite staggering masterpiece in recovery.
It’s not that Jannik Sinner won Wimbledon that matters here. It’s that he won Wimbledon despite his heart, mind, and soul being crushed just a few weeks ago in Paris. It’s how he dealt with this tennis trauma in record time that matters. Because it shows he’s truly something else and is now fully deserving of a start to a comparison with the Avengers era. Only the Big 4 had become masters at bouncing back; only Novak Djokovic was the gold standard in “getting heartbroken in Paris but swinging in London”- a repeat blockbuster. Before Sinner, he was the only one who had been absolutely shattered by a Roland-Garros miss and found a way to will himself into a Wimbledon title. And so on Sunday came Jannik Sinner.
Jannik Sinner became, after beating nemesis Carlos Alcaraz, the first Italian to ever win a Wimbledon singles title. He now has four Majors in the pocket and £3,000,000 more to add to his bank account. By completing his set of Grand Slam finals on his 23rd Grand Slam appearance only, Sinner is now third on the Open Era list for “fewest Grand Slam appearances before reaching the men’s singles final at all 4 Grand Slam tournaments – behind Courier and Agassi (19th and 22nd Grand Slam appearances)”. It’s all amazing, but it’s actually what I find the least interesting in Sinner’s Wimbledon journey this year. I always find that a champion’s brain wiring is so much more interesting to examine than the results of these brains’ actions. It’s the start of everything.
The guy is, anyway, so good with a game so made for grass that he was always going to win on the last Sunday on that Centre Court. It was happening. But that he won this one after what happened in Paris and what happened overall this season, this is where the extraordinary and the “How Could He?” amazement lies. This is where Sinner wrote, for me, the first big page of his already illustrious career. This is where, for the first time, he found a way to emotionally connect with the tennis world outside of Italy.
How come Alcaraz serving at 3-5 0-40 in that fourth set of the Roland-Garros final wasn’t still haunting Sinner in that Wimbledon final? Damn, how come wasn’t it still haunting him in the first game of his first match in London?! Carlos Alcaraz said he wasn’t surprised at all that Sinner recovered so quickly. Many other tennis people and non-tennis people were like, Oh, of course he was going to be fine, he knew he played a great match and has all the time in the world.’ But I wasn’t that confident or that convinced.
“That's a question that we'll have trouble answering, because I wouldn't have coped like, I think, most normal athletes that get into that position and have Love-40, 5-3 in the fourth set, match points to win Roland Garros,” Darren Cahill
Yet, against all odds, Sinner went to Halle and actually, in retrospect, he did well because he got his “I don’t wanna get back to that” moment there, and not in London. He said it himself: He couldn’t sleep after Paris, he had a rough time dragging himself to Halle, and nothing in that experience was remotely nice. But he did it, he competed again, he lost again, he fired half his team for good measure, and so he landed in London “detoxed.” But, still, isn’t the way he rewired his emotional state so quickly absolutely astounding? Isn’t it the biggest surprise there? I was relieved to hear Darren Cahill, when I asked him about it after the final, say that the way Sinner copped was entirely something else, something impossible to really comprehend, and that very few people would have been able to do that.
“That's a question that we'll have trouble answering, because I wouldn't have coped like, I think, most normal athletes that get into that position and have Love-40, 5-3 in the fourth set, match points to win Roland Garros,” Cahill said. “And certainly his year has been challenging for everybody involved. Then to put himself in that position and miss out on it, yeah, it's a quality that he has as a person, and I put that back again at his grounded upbringing, and the way he treats the people around him. He's a good, young fellow. Always has a smile on his face. The person that you see on the tennis court, this focus, this attention to detail, is not the same guy off the court. He's a fun-loving guy who is joking around all the time. He's cooking. He's messing up stuff. He's making mistakes all over the place. We're laughing about it. It's a good group of people. He has fun like any other 23-year-old. But he has a mentality on the tennis court that is special.”
Simone Vagnozzi, Sinner’s other coach, also thought Sinner here just showed he was born with some extra skills. “He has a quality that is incredible, that when he enters the court, he manages to put everything aside and therefore to give 100% of what he has at that moment. He was able to put aside all the negative things that may be there in a period of his life, or maybe even the good ones, because maybe one can also relax too much, and when he enters the court, he manages to give 100% of what he has. This is very complicated to find, and it is a quality that is innate.”
It’s interesting because after he lost the way he did in Paris, I wrote here that Sinner needed to start opening up in these moments, to take some pressure off and to wake up Alcaraz, thereby putting pressure on him. I wrote that you can’t get over the last hurdles in these events without being willing to spill your guts out there.
“When he enters the court, he manages to put everything aside,” Simone Vagnozzi
And that’s exactly what Sinner did in London, a conscious strategy or not. Maybe pushed by this right elbow issue, too. At some point, when issues keep piling, one needs to let some steam off. Already against Grigor Dimitrov (Sinner owes Grigor one of these luxury cars he loves so much, at the very least, by the way), he - wait for it - yelled on the court after breaking back. Everybody was like, “Who Is He?”. And so against Alcaraz very early in that match, he was showing fist and racquet to his box, but also, way more interestingly, calling on the crowd after winning some big points.
He took the risk of spending more energy outside of himself, and it paid off. It might totally change the way he conducts himself in these big matches. And that’s good news for the sport, as Sinner was starting to get way too much flak for being robotic. And was starting to lose way too many chances to connect with tennis fans by plainly refusing to engage. Which, he might not have cared about and might still not care about, but it probably also cost him the title in Paris because he found an entire stadium cheering for his rival on the biggest points.
“He took the risk of spending more energy outside of himself, and it paid off.”
People have forgotten, but Sinner used to be a very emotional player in the big moments, and so he and the team clearly had to rein that in. Clearly had to get him to find ways to block it all out and focus on the points. Roger Federer started his career as a wild emotional tornado; let’s never forget that.
An updated version of Sinner won Wimbledon, and it’s a better one for him and for tennis
Was the slightly new version of Jannik Sinner, who took Alcaraz down on Sunday, strategically built, or was it him letting his real temper speak? Is he going to keep these cracks in the mask? Paris proved to him that an update to the system was needed. This is a very pragmatic personality and someone who obviously hates surprises, and hates missing opportunities to control what he can control. External factors, X factors, who are you? No. So if letting the mask crack helps him win, he’ll keep it that way. The day it costs him a title, he’ll lock it all again.
Tennis for Sinner is a blueprint to follow and update constantly. He’s constantly on the lookout for new threats and updates. There is zero space here for art. All is surgical. He was told that being braver in big moments and showing more energy would work, and so he sent that ace on second serve on a game point, and he hit that BHDTL on a break point. And so he looked at the crowd eye to eye and pumped that fist, and he shouted encouraging words to himself and his box the whole time. So I still don’t know what the real Sinner version is, but the Italian found out what the winning version was, and tennis surely met the tennis version of him it liked the most. I am also amazed at the skills level here because it’s one thing to be told to be braver when it matters, to know it’s the right call, and entirely another to not only do it but also deliver on it. Oh sure, on that break point next time, I’ll hit that winner! Well, he did.
Obsessive behaviors usually land you on a shrink’s couch, but in pro sports, it often lands you at the top. I feel the edge you have in tennis when you’re the type to get fixated on goals, tasks, and rivals is vastly underestimated. Sinner, here, is so obsessed with improving his game again and again to defeat anybody he crosses and be the best, that it keeps him on track. Cahill said the Italian would watch hours of Alcaraz’s matches to see what he was still doing better than him. Sinner came to the press after - check notes - winning his first-ever Wimbledon, saying he still saw some things Carlos was doing better than him and that he’d have to work on. He was already discussing how younger players were becoming threats. What threats, Jannik? Where? Why thinking about them now? Bless. But also, this generation is really treating their career like a rat race, and that’s a gamble.
With Sinner, this is still a brain that ain’t wired like the rest of them all. Except those who wrote history in this sport not so long ago. Is obsessive behavior something one should put on the wish list? Up in the air. But it’s definitely a common point at the top. Now, I still feel that it’s not something you can acquire. And maybe it’s not something you’d want to acquire, because you add the ultra-perfectionism of most professional tennis players to this, and gosh, it’s a lot to manage. It’s impossible here not to compare Sinner to Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray. I feel Federer was lower on the obsession scale, same for Alcaraz, but the other three… goodness gracious. Has Sinner been encouraged in the trait he already possessed, thanks to his work with Dr. Riccardo Ceccarelli, put on the path by Riccardo Piatti, and master of Formula Medicine? It would seem logical. Still, you need quite the pilot at the wheel to execute that Wimbledon rebound.
Is it a coincidence that the other three also kept coming back, like Sinner, from every low they’d hit in career or matches? That they lasted so long at the top? That their motivation rarely dropped? When your eyes never leave the prizes, how can you ever lose your way? I feel that’s Sinner’s secret: He’s quiet, but he’s absolutely ruthless in the obsession he has about being the best. And so he compartmentalized things very well, keeping them separate from the emotional level. Either things make sense in his system or they get outta here. Re: Firing half of his team. Firing his own feelings when they hamper rather than help. He’s fixated on piling on these trophies, keeping his throne, and keeping the competition at bay. And for this, he needs to get better. And so here’s his virtuous circle as much as his light in the darkness.
Here’s why I think this Wimbledon 2025 showed why Jannik Sinner may be scarier than Carlos Alcaraz to the rest of the field. Sinner is the most relentless, ruthless, and obsessed of the two of them. He’s the one that, as Cahill said after the elbow scare, can’t take a day off. He’s the one who thinks about winning 24/7. And so he’s the one who, even when he suffers the most crushing loss, will come back for your throat the morning after. His intensity got the best of Alcaraz on Sunday and will become increasingly exhausting for the rest of the field. How long can he master the remote control, though? We shall see!
Sinner, In His Own Words
I liked it when he said on the court that winning here was “the dream of a dream.” That’s how far he thought he’d be when he started his career to get his hands on a Wimbledon trophy. Here are other quotes I found significant at press:
“I feel very emotional, even if I don't cry. It feels emotional because only I and the people who are close to me know exactly what we have been through on and off the court, and it has been everything except easy. We've tried to push every practice session, even though I struggled mentally at times. Maybe even more in practice sessions, because I feel like when I play the match, I can switch off and just play. I believe that this helped me a lot. To share this moment with my family here is the most amazing thing that could have happened to me.”
“When you lose several times against someone, it's not easy. But at the same time in the past, I felt that I was very close. If you watch all matchups, you know, I'm starting Beijing, 7-6 in the third. Then Rome was I had set point in the first set, I couldn't use it. Then, you know, in Paris, what happened happened. But I felt close. I never pushed myself down. I always look up to Carlos because even today, I feel like he is doing a couple of things better than I am. That's something we will work on and prepare for, because he's going to come after us again. There is not only Carlos, but everyone. We have a big target on us, so we have to be prepared. Then we see what's happening in the future.”
“Standing here as a finalist in Roland Garros, and when that moment was over, I felt like I had done something great because it was not easy. Coming here and winning Wimbledon has been amazing. At the same time, I tried to believe in myself and to accept whatever happens. There is only one way to get better as a player. Hopefully, if you do that, the chances that you win matches are higher because you put your daily effort in. This is exactly what we did. From now on, we're going to do it even more because there are players who are going to come. You have to be prepared.”
Darren Cahill (who might stay in Team Sinner after all!): “He Needed That Win”
“Today was important for many, many reasons. Carlos has had the wood over him for the last five matches. They've played amazing matches, and Jannik has had chances in maybe four of the five matches they've played to beat him. Hasn't been able to get the victory. So today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam final, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last five matches against him. He needed that win today. So he knew the importance of closing this one out when he had the opportunity. With that, I think you saw a bit more energy from him in the big moments and a bit more focus to knuckle down and make sure that when he had his nose in front, he kept on closing the door against Carlos. He did an amazing job with that today.”
“The leading week to Wimbledon was the best practice week we've ever had with him.”
“We didn't speak about Roland Garros within 24 hours after the match, because the way he played, the attitude that he had on court, the effort that he gave, it was faultless, and he was just beaten by a better player in the end. We talked a little bit about his game, maybe about being a little bit braver in the bigger moments. But beyond that, we could not have been more proud of the way he played across in Paris. For us, it was important to move forward as quickly as possible. The leading week to Wimbledon was the best practice week we've ever had with him as far as attitude, as far as form.
We don't normally care about practice sets and winning or losing. We're always working on the big picture. But he was awesome in the practice week. We knew we had something special coming in, but you've got 14 days to sort of get this guy primed, and he was primed from the first round, ready to go. We knew that he had already put that behind him. He was coming here and playing with a real purpose. I think you could see that from the first match that he played, that he wasn't carrying any baggage from Roland Garros. That's not easy to do. It's easy for us to say that in words, to put it to one side, but for the player to wipe it away and be able to come here with the mentality that he had, is 100% credit to him.”
“The rivalry is amazing already, and I think it can get better with both these players pushing each other. I do think there are some other younger players coming through that will punch their way through the door, so it won't just be a two-man show. It's difficult to compare this rivalry to what we've just had. It's been a golden age in tennis with Novak, Roger, Rafa, and Andy. They dominated for 20 years. Incredibly selfish, they won all those Grand Slams. To win a Grand Slam back in those days, you had to beat one of them in the quarters, the other one in the semis, and another one in the final. These guys still have a ways to go, but they've started incredibly well. I'm not going to compare them just yet to what we've just seen.”
Simone Vagnozzi: “Still Work To Do To Improve.”
“For sure, Jannik is moving great. He can slide on grass, like on clay. He has great timing on the ball, so he can play from the baseline like he plays on a hard court. In the last three years, he has improved his serve so much. Today, I think he has a really, really good match with the serve, especially on the second serve. It's less vulnerable than before. He made a good variation with the drop shot, coming to the net. Probably the first two sets, he was not great on the net, but then he continued to be brave. And this one is, I think, that's why he has the title today.”
“Then he continued to be brave.”
“For sure, he's naturally strong, but we work day by day with him also on the mental side because we can speak about technique tactically, but if you are not able to stay there with the right attitude, the right mentality stuff, then to execute the game like you want… So we speak a lot every day before the practice, before a match. We take care of his mental, for sure.”
“Surely now there is a week to take a little vacation, to sit down and enjoy this victory. Then it will be time to return to the court. As I have always said, if a player enters the training ground without a technical, tactical, or physical goal where he can improve, it is difficult for him to stay there. So I think that when we return to Monte Carlo, after the break, there will still be work to do, to improve on the smaller details. It is not like three years ago when there was a lot to improve, but the service can become even more continuous, and the variations of the service can become even better. The transition to the network can improve, too. Many small things are fundamental for a player to maintain high motivation.”
By The Way, Now It’s A Rivalry
There is no rivalry at this level until the rival takes away a Grand Slam title from you. A 1000 event, the Finals, sure, that stings. But the glory of a Grand Slam title? Only an Olympic gold medal comes close. So, for Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s journey to deserve the title of a true rivalry, Wimbledon needed to go to the Italian. If not, Alcaraz would have snatched a real mental edge over Sinner, even more after the way he escaped in Paris. Sinner is still down 8-5 in their confrontations, and 3-2 at Grand Slam level, but a Grand Slam final comes with bonus points in the mind.
I’m not going to lie, I was surprised at how Alcaraz kind of abdicated in the middle of this match. I thought he had hit a wall, that maybe his Rome to Roland-Garros to the Queen’s to Wimbledon journey was catching up with him. His intensity dropped, his serve went down, and he started to miss a little bit of heart in the rallies. He also stopped being creative. However, when I asked him during his press conference, he honestly stunned me by saying he had been physically fine, but that it had become too hard for him mentally. He said he was pushed to defend all the time and couldn’t find a solution against Sinner. He logically blamed his serve.
It’s not the first time that I’m quite surprised to hear him say he couldn’t handle a tennis situation, mentally. It contrasts so much with the many times he plays like a warrior. There’s something, sometimes, that just finds a spot in his brain and whispers some pretty confusing things loud enough that he starts to believe them. Sure, Sinner was on the attack, but many games were still tight. Didn’t he see Sinner shake in the first set from 4-2 up? Didn’t he see him under pressure in the fourth as he had to fight to hold?
It’s fascinating to me that, from the inside, Alcaraz felt he couldn’t go through Sinner that day. That he felt so dominated that he ended up feeling mentally not strong enough out there. In 2023 against Novak Djokovic, he was put back on the wall and dominated regularly by an opponent playing the same kind of baseline aggression as Sinner. He didn’t back down; he just tried harder until the other broke. In Paris, he was also totally dominated by Sinner… until he wasn’t anymore. So why couldn’t he find, this time, any way to believe he could win? Sinner had won their only meeting here in 2022, but he was the one with two back-to-back titles. Didn’t it bring him any bonus of confidence? This is also surely a moment when the rivalry is now fully on, as Sinner on Sunday had found a way to nest inside Alcaraz’s mind as much as in his game. And that’s what a true rival at this level does to you.
Great review! Thank you for your thoughts and also the follow up comments from the coaches and players. Well done!
Wow, this is a very thorough analysis on his athlete mentality. I guess there has always been something scary about Sinner and you have articulated all that into this article. This is a good one! Kudos