don't mind me really!

disclaimer: This post started because I was mulling over the wealth of information we have on Jannik: years and years of interviews (where he may or may not be lying); waaay too much footage (is there a performative aspect if he knows he's on camera); secondhand accounts. And, of course, his tennis!

No two people characterise him 100% the same - which probably isn't surprising considering the sheer amount of information available that can be missed and the way we filter information through our own interests and experiences. So this got me to thinking, what were the particular bits and bobs of information that spoke to me, what are the pieces I lean on the most when reconstructing my very fictional version of Jannik?

(i feel like i should just really really emphasise the following is a collection of things which may or may not be true. these are just the things that i, personally, use to inform myself and i can't verify veracity in any way. it's all fiction!!!)

the basics Jannik Sinner is a normal 24 year old who experiences life in a very normal way and does normal 24 year old activities like golfing and karting and living in Monaco and going on record-breaking win streaks. he takes each day as it comes, treats every match every opponent the same, he and his team prepare the best they can, now let's see what's coming :)

the narrative he's a robot; an algorithm; precise and suffocating and above all, consistent. he can't win a match over 3hrs 50minutes. he suffers from the heat; his worst enemy is his own body. by the way, did you know he used to be a champion skier?

(he's robotic. he's boring. [insert doping joke of choice here].)

the thesis "In any situation, you seem to always be in control of yourself emotionally. Is it truly the case, or are you just very good at hiding your frustration?"

"Absolutely not true. Inside, there is a storm going on."

the crunchy bit (and here's where i start overinterpreting stuff…) THE SUPPRESSION. Jannik knows who he is, what he wants: to be Some Guy who plays tennis, develop into the best version of himself, reap the rewards of his job, be able to clock in, clock out, not have to speak with the press. He doesn't (didn't?) want to be involved in The Narratives of it all; this is just his job, he's not carrying on a legacy or a reflection of the Big Three or anything like that. The press is not entitled to his emotions, his opinions, his true thoughts. There is a safety to being the emotionless, consistent tennisbot - or does that narrative start becoming suffocating?

sidenote: perpetually fascinated by Jannik's relationship to the robot analogy since it's the perfect representation of: what are his true feelings, what is PR? my own thoughts:

he doesn't mind enough to push back on it when his tennis is compared to that of a robot (when it's used a shorthand for consistency especially when compared to Carlos) - interesting to see him agree right away and then spend a little bit searching for words to explain his thoughts and his own playstyle before the interviewer butts in, and then Jannik diverts all attention from himself in favour of praising Fonseca instead. Easy to interpret there being a bit of unease behind his agreement…

he does, however, implicitly push back against the robot description being used for himself as a person : no one is a robot or designed to never make mistakes. love me a guy who has constructed a mask to protect himself but now has to keep asserting actually, he's human, he's fallible, why is everyone only seeing the mask and not the human underneath??? Jannik Sinner and being caught in traps of his own making is 🤌😘

soooooo……… what exactly is Jannik suppressing that he doesn't want other people to stick their noses into???

As I was watching yesterday's match, I felt in such a state of helplessness that I can't explain to people who don't watch sports. I was still crossing my fingers, praying to God when jannik was 5-1 in the 5th set... hoping, desperately praying for some miracle.

Sports is sometimes about hope you know. Hope that you'll win, hope that you will come back from your fall, hope that everything will go well on your part. Hope is that thing which keeps a human moving, or is it determination? Who knows, maybe a mix of both kept my dear friend Jannik stand up and play deuces under the scorching heat and fatigue from his own body.

To the people, who're complaining about his physicality and spewing irrational biological nonsense.. let me teach you a cent or two about biology. As a person who suffers under intense heat often, it doesn't really have a "solution". Sometimes the body just gives up, we can't do anything. If we try to push it more, it would cause damage to ourselves. That's why I was more worried about his health yesterday, rather than winning the match.

To be honest, this heat stroke and cramps hasn't only been faced by Jannik in RG this year. This has been experienced by many players— Jacub Mensik, Gabriel Diallo, Casper Ruud, Terence Atmane. Rublev and Buse had required the tournament trainer on seperate occasions to monitor vitals with a stethoscope and add heavy doses of salts and minerals to their bottles.

WTA players have been severely impacted as well, with prominent stars either the crashing out, altering press schedules or speaking out against the brutal physical toll of this heatwave. Both Zheng Qinwen and Daria Kasatkina had spoken out about this physical discomfort of playing under such afternoon heat.

Then you would probably ask why wasn't the roof closed, given the number of complaints that has been surrounding the tournament, right?

The retractable roof on Court Philippe Chatrier was not closed because the French Open's extreme whether policy strictly uses the roof for rain, not for heat; unlike the Australian Open.

Tbh closing the roof at Roland Garros does not solve a heat problem the way it does in Melbourne. The French Open stadiums are not fully sealed, air tight arenas, meaning they lack a powerful central air-conditioning system the cool down the interior. If officials close the roof on a hot today, it can trap the rising hot air, stop what little natural breeze exists and create a stagnant humid greenhouse effect that exacerbates the heat issue for players.

A major point of contention among organisation and place is tournament equity. If Court Philippe-Chatrier is closed and shielded, the players on the outer uncovered courts are still forced to bake in the direct sun, creating vastly unequal playing conditions across the same round.

That basically means that the fault lies in the tournament and it's officials right? Bingo.

Roland garros is projected to generate well over 400 million euros this year. While the tournaments overall revenue jumped by 14% last year, player price money only grew by a meager 5.4%. Players claim they share actually drop from 15.5% to 14.3%.

The question comes: WTF ARE THE FTF DOING WITH REST OF THE MONEY?! The players are not paid enough, they can't make proper infrastructure and stadium renovations then where does rest of the money go?! To executives' pockets?? The world is changing so is the climate, hence the federation can't stick to their old rusted rules and expect everyone to follow them blindly.

One more concern that critics are missimg from this topic is that other than players who are directly playing the sport, several other people contribute to this sport like fans and ball kids. While the chair umpire has an umbrella for basic shade, thousands of fans and the ground staff are left entirely unprotected. Spectators paying premium prices for tickets are forced to bake in uncovered stands for up to 5 hours during unreasonable hot 33°C (91°F) peak days. With no shade, heat exhaustion cases among court workers and ball kids create major medical strain during these tournaments as well.

The tournaments defence that "closing the roof wood created unfair advantage for court centre players" completely falls apart when we look at the economics of Grand Slams. Instead of hoarding hundreds of millions of euros or allocating it away from the players, a portion of these staggering profit should be reinvested into modernising player and fan environment across all secondary match courts. Even on the two biggest stadiums that feature retractable roof (Court Philippe-Chatrier and Suzane-Lenglen), the tournament did not install the heavy-duty climate control systems easily found in Melbourne or New York. Closing the roof on a hot day without ventilation simply creates a humid greenhouse effect.

Other than this massive heatwave issue, another thing that the players have spoken about is the tour calendar. How stacked up it is, how tightly schedules everything is. Overall I have only one thing to say to these bald heads:

Many a decisions can he taken while sitting in an air conditioned room at big tall offices, try playing on the court one day. Hopefully then you can understand what the players experience, how they die everyday on court.

Now over to mi dulce nino, look... I am not gonna sit here and complain and whine like a crybaby talking about if, if and if. Jannik lost, whether it was against heat or Cerundulo.. he got defeated fair and square. I don't typically want to blame his physicality or diet here tbh, its just that his body can't take it. He is born in a different climate and habitat, his body is that of a ginger's and is genetically similar to that of a victorian child anyway.

He can finish Career Slam another year, I know he will. If Roger could do it, so can Jannik. I genuinely hope that after this brilliant performance throughout the entire clay season, people won't disrespect jannik by saying that he isn't an all surface player. I will personally punch them if anybody says like that. It's a loss, I know and I also know how Jannik gets after a loss. He becomes a madman.

This slam meant a lot to him, we all know it. RG will come next year as well. He achieved so much already this year so I am not veryyyy sad. I am more happy that he got that deserving rest, and then he can come to play Halle (as a WC ofc) and Wimbledon. I advice all the janniksin fans not to lose hope.

Congratulations to Cerundulo again, for capitalising the opportunity. I am really happy that players are finding that confidence and mentality to challenge the top 2 players and increase competition, even if it's by 1-2%.