On the eve of Wimbledon, London is hot. But Jannik Sinner – the newly-minted ATP world number one – is cool. Or at least he looks it in a dark Gucci suit. In just a few days time, he'll be defending his seat against Carlos Alcaraz and (pending recovery) Novak Djokovic. But between training rounds, Sinner made some time for dinner with Ryan Gosling, Joe Alwyn and Salma Hayek Pinault, at an evening hosted by Gucci and Sabato De Sarno.
“Wimbledon is the only tournament where you feel the real history of tennis. And during the point, nobody talks, the atmosphere is very different. When you play on centre court, it's nice, you know?"
The 6'2 wunderkind is known for his serene, legato demeanour and shock of red hair. He's clear-eyed about the potential perils of sitting so high in the rankings at such a young age. “It's important not to put any extra pressure on yourself, because it's not going to help you," he says. “Obviously everyone wants to beat you. Being number one is different from winning a big title. Number one is when you worked one whole year to get to this point and you had a beautiful year. Winning one title, you had a beautiful week.”
This year has been Sinner's for the taking. Since the start of 2024, he's won his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open, before stops in Miami, Indian Wells, Rotterdam, Paris, Madrid, Halle and his current hometown, Monte-Carlo.
Elegant, lean and, well, Italian, he was a natural choice for Gucci when he was drafted in as brand ambassador in 2022. He worked with the house to create their first custom duffel tennis bag and since then, they've gone on to design three more together (he holds on to the older bags, storing them at home). The pro player keeps things light on court, filling the spacious hold-all with just a change of clothes and water bottles.
Sinner was, until recently, a stranger to this industry. “I didn't know fashion at all," he says of the time when he first became an ambassador. Now, he's learnt stuff – chiefly from Gucci's creative director Sabato de Sarno. “He explains the story and the reason behind certain clothes. I like this family feeling, no?
“Sometimes we text each other, it's nice. I feel like, whenever he works, he's very professional, but then whenever he finishes the work, he is like us, like just normal people.”
A normal person who is ranked as the best tennis player in the world – especially at a time when tennis has never been so popular. So, was it weird for Jannik Sinner to watch Challengers?
“I haven't watched the movie. I know everyone was talking about this,” he says. “It's nice that people get more into our sport. I feel like our sport is very competitive. You don't go against each other body to body, you know, like physical, but you can still hurt him in a mental way.” Sounds like Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist have done it justice, then.
