{"id":79156,"date":"2025-05-06T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/79156\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:44:09","slug":"jannik-sinner-says-incredible-atp-player-who-is-his-good-friend-has-become-one-of-the-best-players-in-the-world-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/79156\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner says ‘incredible’ ATP player who is his good friend has become one of the best players in the world now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jannik Sinner is back on the ATP Tour, having served his three-month suspension in time to return at the Italian Open.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sinner<\/a> is the top seed at the 2025 Italian Open<\/a>, having retained his world number one ranking despite his three-month ban.<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz occupy second and third respectively in the ATP Tour<\/a> rankings, with the duo also taking on the Italian Open.<\/p>\n

All three players have been handed a bye in round one of the ATP Masters 1000 event, which takes place in Rome.<\/p>\n

Jiri Lehecka was confirmed as Sinner\u2019s first practice partner<\/a> at the tournament, but his preparations started previously with another ATP player.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Mike Hewitt\/Getty ImagesJannik Sinner says Jack Draper is one of the best players in the world<\/p>\n

Sinner trained with Jack Draper<\/a> as part of his preparations, with the Italian now sharing his thoughts on the Briton for Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a good friend of mine, also off the court,\u201d Sinner said of Draper<\/a>. \u201cHe has an incredible game. Great mentality.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Casper Ruud says what he thinks of Jack Draper as a tennis player after beating him in the Madrid Open final<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have been following for so long already and now he is coming through some incredible matches. One of the best players in the world right now. I was happy to share the court with him [in practice].<\/p>\n

\u201cTried to understand where my level is, in the beginning things were not as perfect as I wanted to, which is normal. But after it went a little bit better, so I am happy about that. I am very happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Jack Draper joins Jannik Sinner in ATP top five after Madrid Open<\/p>\n

Draper has enjoyed a stunning rise in a short space of time, most recently reaching the final of the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n

But the 23-year-old did lose out on the trophy to Casper Ruud, who won their entertaining clash 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Annabel Croft shocked by what Casper Ruud did in the final game of the Madrid Open final to beat Jack Draper<\/a><\/p>\n\nRank<\/strong><\/td>\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nAge<\/strong><\/td>\nPoints<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\nJannik Sinner<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n9,730<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\nAlexander Zverev<\/td>\n28<\/td>\n8,085<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\nCarlos Alcaraz<\/td>\n22<\/td>\n7,850<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\nTaylor Fritz<\/td>\n27<\/td>\n4,815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5<\/td>\nJack Draper<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n4,440<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

ATP Tour top five<\/p>\n

Like Sinner, the Italian Open fifth seed has a bye into round two, having just risen to fifth in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

It represents a career-high for the British number one, with Draper now chasing a fourth career title in Rome, and a first on clay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner is back on the ATP Tour, having served his three-month suspension in time to return at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,25564,5005,4718,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-79156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-italian-open","10":"tag-jack-draper","11":"tag-jannik-sinner","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114460954830832909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}