Jannik Sinner is a 20-year-old Italian tennis player in the news today for a shock win over Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz to set up an encounter with the mighty Novak Djokovic, currently ranked world number 3, in a Wimbledon quarter-final on Tuesday, July 5.

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Sinner is the youngest player to make it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon since Nick Kyrgios in 2014. Sinner is ranked 13 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and his best rank was number 9 in November last year.

Sinner has five career titles and has reached Grand Slam quarterfinals thrice. He has played Djokovic once before, in the ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo Monaco last year, and lost.

Sinner was born in Northern Italy on August 16, 2001. As a very active skeeter and footballer, he also played tennis since childhood. Nicknamed Red Byron seemingly because of his hair colour, he started his professional training at the age of thirteen under Riccardo Pittai, a renowned Tennis coach to have coached top 10 ATP ranked players, including Djokovic. He was in the top 100 in the world ranking for the first time in 2019. He continued to rise into the top 50 in 2020 with his first top 10 victories, a French Open where he was the youngest quarter-finalist in men’s singles and got defeated by Nadal and a maiden ATP title. He became the first player born in the 2000s to enter the ATP top 10, in November 2021. Sinner has an excellent two-handed backhand Shot. 

He won his first ATP title in Bergamo in 2019 at the age of 17. Sinner won his second career ATP Tour title at the Grand Ocean Road Open in Australia in February 2021, defeating Italian Stefano Travaglia in the final. He was in an ATP 1000 event in Miami where he lost to Hubert Hurkacz in his first 1000 Master final. 

The fourth title came to him in October 2021 by defending his crown at the Sofia Open and defeating Gael Monfils in the finals. The fifth win was Sinner triumphing at the 2021 European Open in Belgium over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman. 

At Australia Open 2022, Sinner made it to the quarter-finals, where he was defeated by the fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. 

Also Read: Wimbledon 2022: Nadal, Kyrgios, Halep to take Centre Court on Day 8

Italy’s Jannik Sinner defeated Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time. The 20-year-old triumphed 6-1, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. The ten-seeded Italian needed six match points to seal the deal while Alcaraz was left to regret failing to convert six break points in the fourth set. “Carlos is a very tough opponent and a nice person. It’s always a huge pleasure to play him,” said Sinner after making the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the third time.

“I have seen his development, his trajectory, his road to where he is at the moment. It’s really impressive..” said Djokovic about Sinner in 2021 according to a report. 

Besides tennis, he is very fond of football.