Jannik Sinner reveals Wimbledon ban for rest of tournament immediately after match | Tennis | Sport
Jannik Sinner speaking in an on-court interview (Image: Getty)
Jannik Sinner has revealed that his team does not wear white caps because they have a lower win percentage when they do. The world No. 1’s team always wear the same colour clothing during his matches, including his Wimbledon quarter-final win over Jan-Lennard Struff.
Sinner, 24, won in straight sets 7-5, 76 (4), 6-3 to reach a tenth Grand Slam semi-final of his career, which will be against the winner of Felix Auger-Aliassime versus Novak Djokovic. It is his second of the year after a second-round exit at the French Open, and the Italian has now revealed that his coaches have particular preference for how they dress.
Asked about their appearance afterwards, Sinner said, smiling: “You need to ask my team, not me.” In response to a follow-up question about whether he was responsible for how they look, he explained: “No, I’m not in charge.
“The only colour I don’t like is white hats for a certain reason. We have a not good win percentage when they have a white cap, so… But the rest they choose.”
However, he later clarified when speaking to Clare Balding on the BBC, that the rule comes from his coach, Simone Vagnozzi. Asked by the presenter about how colour coordinated they are, Sinner repeated that “you need to ask my coach.”
The Italian explained: “I need to think already about so many things, if I also need to think about what they have to wear… trust me, the day is long. But we have one rule, we said- actually Simone told me: ‘no more white caps’, because they are unlucky, apparently.”
Jannik Sinner’s team, including Darren Cahill, Simone Vagnozzi and Umberto Ferrara, wore black caps (Image: Getty)
While the Italian beat Struff in straight sets, it was far from straightforward on Court No. 1. As acknowledged afterwards by Sinner, he said his opponent was “first of all a very, very tough player to play against. He deserves everything he has done and achieved in his career—a great person off the court.
“In the beginning, I felt like he started better than me; I was struggling a bit. I tried to get into the match, I was serving a bit better, tried to stay there mentally, and of course, very happy to be back in the semi-finals here.”
Hats were needed on Court No. 1 with the sun beating down, leading Sinner to be asked about his heat-affected loss at Roland Garros. In response to a question about Paris, he said, smiling: “Thanks for reminding.
“We worked a lot, especially after Paris, trying to understand what went wrong there. It was a huge test today. I felt really comfortable on the physical side today, so a big step forward.”
