why suffers them, how to manage them – Corriere.it

MONTECARLO The very low ears, the red tuft on the eyes, the morale under the soles. It wasn’t a clear night for Jannik Sinneroutwitted in the semifinal-marathon of Montecarlo by an opponent within his reach but certainly smarter and smarter than the red barondespite his very young age. Holger Rune, 19, reported himself in the news at Roland Garros last year when there were sparks in the locker room with the Norwegian Casper Ruud, amid accusations of verbal aggression and anti-sportsmanship that were never fully clarified (“With Ruud there is no bad feeling left”, Holger said in an interview with Courier after his triumph at the Master 1000 in Paris Bercy over Djokovic), he’s a little Connors who feeds on cheering against him and needs the noise of his enemies to give his best. Besides being an excellent tennis player, of course.

In short, the pattern that seems to repeat itself, and that Sinner will have to learn to unhinge quickly, is this: the red baron suffers opponents with strong personalities, pimps able to get the public on their side (see Tiafoe in Vienna, October 2021, when the American raised the level of his game, started high-fiving the spectators in the front rows and overturned a very compromised match) and those capable of exalting themselves in a hostile environment (Saturday evening the audience at the Monte Carlo headquarters was everything to Jannik, except for a few isolated voices), like Rune. Faced with enemies so skilled at exploiting the environmental factor, fueled by the positive or negative energy of cheering, so sensitive to the vibrations of the arena with the two gladiators in the centre, it is as if Sinner were structurally unable to react quickly. To counter-react.

The stringent logic of his tennis does not (yet) foresee variables that go beyond the narrow perimeter of the court: just as Jannik does not like to improvise (the house specialty is a growing pressure from the baseline which requires a regular rhythm in order to lean on it), so hates wasting mental energy to understand how to react to a variable that does not concern the schemes of the game. The sturm und drang others clash violently against his rationalist classicism: not only is the irrational not foreseen by his inner regulation, but it immediately becomes a disturbing element capable of rippling the still and icy water of his mountain lake. Alcaraz offers Sinner a high, athletic and technical challenge, but without the imponderable of a behavioral madness bordering on the regulation, the characteristic of Rune which is not Kyrgios, it will never be, and reminds Connors – as mentioned – but unlike of Jimmy does not erase the good mark of the ball printed on the line (do you remember Barazzutti?).

Rune is liked because he is unpredictable, arrogant like a rapper, has borderline irreverence and a slap face that captures teenagers, which are mirrored in Holger. Adriano Panatta is right: «All the players on the circuit know that if Jannik plays really well they have no chance of winning. All but Rune.’ Not surprisingly, the day after the battle in the semifinals in Montecarlo, social networks are full of praise for the Danish brat, funny – from every point of view – like few others. The gesture of silence to the audience, the provocations to the spectators, the rebound ball that Jannik had to dodge and then turn to Rune annoyed, as if to say: what the hell are you doing? (There, it must be said, the Dane apologized).

Rude and arrogant perhaps, but not against the rules. In fact, not half a warning has flown. “His behavior? I won’t comment», Jannik slyly said at the end of the match, evidently annoyed, in fact the handshake at the net was hasty and very cold. The Red Baron will also learn to handle these situations, but he will never be able to go against his nature. It is already a significant step that for the past couple of years he has started making his fist, throwing a few battle cries after a good point. But asking a South Tyrolean to lend himself to the heated game of Tiafoe and Rune is perhaps a bit too much.