Jannik Sinner head over heels about the magic of a grand slam

It was the first major triumph for 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner who plays so gracefully and elegantly that yeah, no, he could compete in one of Valentino’s three-piece suits.

Italian Jannik Sinner makes himself comfortable with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup trophy at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne on Monday after his Australian Open victory. Picture: AFP

Talent is always a mystery to the person who has it.

“Yeah, no, this is a tough question,” Jannik Sinner grins when asked to recall the moment he ­realised as a young fellow that he could hit a tennis ball better than the average bear. Yeah, no, it’s ­always a tough question for a gifted musician, actor, singer, writer or athlete because the way they do it … it’s the only way they’ve ever done it. The only thing they’ve ever known. So yeah, no, they don’t entirely understand the fuss.

“I cannot answer,” Sinner laughs. “It’s magic, you know? It’s tough to say. From my point of view – I am inside me, basically, so it’s tough to understand when someone says, ‘Look, you are ­special’, or, ‘You’re a good player’. Because you know only yourself. It’s like you cannot touch the ball that you have hit on the other side of the court, so how do you know? You just try to keep improving.”

Sinner won the Australian Open on Sunday night with a 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3 triumph over Russian Daniil Medvedev. It was the first major triumph for the 22-year-old Italian who plays so gracefully and elegantly that yeah, no, he could compete in one of Valentino’s three-piece suits.

The result had a star-is-born vibe for a player who has faced pressure since everyone started banging on about the talent he had in his early teens.

He got all whimsical on us at Melbourne Park by saying: “I like to dance in the pressure storm.” You like to do what? “I don’t know how to tell you,” he said. “Me personally, I just like the pressure. It’s where most of the time I bring out my best tennis. Yes, there is always pressure, but you have to see it as something good. There are not so many players who have this kind of pressure but in the other way, when you do have the pressure, it means you believe you can really do it.”

Sinner posed with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup in Melbourne on Monday. Has a major champion ever scrubbed up so well? Well, yeah. The name was Federer, Roger Federer, but the dear old thing has retired and in the clean-cut and polite Sinner, tennis has found its next global pin-up.

Winning a major is life-changing. Yeah, no, all eyes will be on him from now.

“I feel that’s part of the game, no?” he said. “I’m extremely happy I’m in this position now. I have a great team behind me who knows what I have to do. We were talking already after the match that we can improve still. It’s all part of the process.

“Obviously having this trophy, it’s an amazing feeling, and I’m so grateful to have this here. But I know that I have to work even harder because the opponents, they will find the way to start beating me and I have to be prepared. Let’s see what’s coming in the future.”