Jannik Sinner makes decision on pulling out of Italian Open after £870k title win | Tennis | Sport

Jannik Sinner says he has “no reason not to play” the upcoming Italian Open, despite playing – and winning – 23 matches since March 7. The world No. 1 made history on Sunday, becoming the first man to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles as he thrashed Alexander Zverev 6-1 6-2 to win the Madrid Open, also earning £870k (€1.007m) in prize money.

After winning last month’s Monte Carlo Masters, Sinner had cast doubts over his Madrid Open participation and put off making a decision on entering the tournament. But he still came to the Spanish capital and left as the champion. Now, the Italian Open, Sinner’s home tournament, gets underway in just three days. But he already seems to have made a call on whether he’ll be at the Foro Italico.

“I think playing at home is always very special. At the same time, now I just want to enjoy this. I don’t want to think about future plans,” Sinner explained. “Physically, I’m good. There is no reason not to play Rome, of course. But at the same time, I want to enjoy this. It has been a very, very long tournament, starting from Indian Wells. Obviously very happy, but now it’s also good to recover. Especially also mentally, we did a lot. There is always a lot of pressure, so, yeah, let’s see.”

As the top seed, Sinner wouldn’t play his opening match in Rome until either next Friday or Saturday, giving him at least five days to recover. And given that he needed just 58 minutes to beat Zverev in the Madrid Open final, he shouldn’t be too tired.

After suffering a 6-1 6-2 defeat to Sinner – his seventh loss to the Italian since mid-October – Zverev admitted there was a significant gap between the world No. 1 and the rest of the field. But Sinner himself isn’t as convinced.

“Oh, it’s tough to say. You know, sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days. It also depends when I play against someone. I always try in every tournament. One day, can be big changes. If you see the first day, again, you know, first-round matches, they are very tough. After, you try to raise your level,” he explained.

“Today it was a really, really good performance from my side; very solid, serving well. But, look, I don’t compare myself with other players. I try to be the best possible version of myself, and that’s it. In the same time, it also depends, you know, day by day it’s always different.”

Sinner was also asked who could try to challenge his dominance. While he was hesitant to put too much pressure on some up-and-coming players, he used this week’s Madrid Open – where Rafael Jodar and Alexander Blockx enjoyed breakthroughs – as an example of why he always had to be “careful”.

The newly-crowned champion replied: “It’s tough to say because, you know, I also don’t like to answer these kind of questions. You have to be careful. There are great players, players we know, who seems like they are coming, and they are actually there already.

“But in the same time, you never know. Someone like Jodar, six months ago, nobody saw, and he’s now here around the names. Maybe this can happen in a couple of months there is a new player coming. Blockx made semis here, and before he was a little bit undercover. It’s very tough to say. I think great, great potential players, every one. You need to be ready. You need to inform yourself. With every name what’s going to come, you need to be very much informed.

“Of course, my job is always to improve as a player, because at the end of the day the results is only a consequence of how much work you put in. We are definitely working very well, but we need to keep going, you know, because if you drop a little bit, people are going to catch very fast. So I’m very happy to keep working.”

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