WATCH: Jannik Sinner takes to the slopes in festive ski break

James Richardson
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Jannik Sinner off court
A smiling Jannik Sinner away from the tennis court

Jannik Sinner may be a tennis star who will not be denied in 2023, but he grew up well acquainted with skiing slopes growing up as the son of two lodge employees.

Sinner was born in Innichen/San Candido, in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol to Hanspeter and Siglinde Sinner.

His mother works as a waitress at a ski lodge, and his father is a chef. He was raised in Sexten, a village famous as a summer and winter sport resort in the mountains of Northern Italy.

It should come as no surprise that he has some skills on the slopes.

A video posted to social media shows Sinner enjoying skiing with Christmas music backing up the serene images.

Sinner originally shared the video to his Instagram account.

Sinner had already reached the quarterfinals of all four majors and won six tour-level championships prior to this year. But it wasn’t until 2023 that everything really clicked for the tall, hard-hitting baseliner, who went 64-15 to set an Open Era record for most victories by an Italian player in a single season.

That total featured a personal-best 13 Top 10 victories, his first major semi-final at Wimbledon, his first ATP Masters 1000 victory (Toronto), and a run to the ATP Finals trophy match, and exchanged victories with year-end No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Turin. He also surpassed Adriano Panatta as the highest-ranked Italian in ATP Rankings history.

“I think, especially the second half of the year, mentally I was much, much stronger,” said Sinner. “I was not complaining so much on court when things were going in the wrong way. I think these kind of things, they make difference sometimes…

“One of the things where I can be really happy is that I played many, many important matches in the biggest stadiums we have throughout the whole year. This is something [that] hopefully can help for the next season.”

Sinner has maintained a fluid support team throughout 2023 but it seems to be something that work well for him.

“I would describe my team as nice people, happy people,” Sinner told ATPTOUR.com.

“Everyone knows very well what he has to do. I feel good with them and lucky to have them, so I think it is a very good team.

“Everyone is very important for me because for me it’s sometimes also good to mix it up a little bit.

“You don’t go to every tournament with the same people, but to have different voices sometimes, it’s very good. I think everyone is very important for me, because also with two different tennis coaches sometimes to have new things coming, you learn new things.”

READ MORE: Where do tennis players go on holiday

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