{"id":231673,"date":"2025-10-22T05:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231673\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:15:15","slug":"tennis-news-2025-jannik-sinner-withdraws-from-davis-cup-reaction-front-page-headline-in-tuesdays-gazzetta-dello-sport-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231673\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis news 2025 | Jannik Sinner withdraws from Davis Cup, reaction; front-page headline in Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner<\/a>\u2019s decision not to play for host Italy in the Davis Cup Final 8 is being met with a sense of abandonment in his home country \u2013 where he was fiercely defended during his doping case earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The second-ranked Sinner, who led Italy to tennis\u2019 biggest team trophy the past two years, said that he prefers to prepare for next season instead of helping the Azzurri aim for another title in Bologna next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy decision, but after Turin (where the ATP Finals are played the week before the Davis Cup), the goal is to start off on the right foot in Australia,\u201d Sinner said, referring to the Australian Open, where he is the two-time defending champion.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like it, but a week of preparation in that period can make a difference,\u201d Sinner told Sky Italia on Monday from Vienna, where he is playing this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already won the Davis Cup in 2023 and 2024 and this time we decided like this with my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The front-page headline in Tuesday\u2019s Gazzetta dello Sport translated to: \u201cSinner, think it over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner and the cover of Gazzetta dello Sport.\u00a0Getty\/Gazzetta dello Sport<\/p>\n

An accompanying editorial in the Gazzetta took Sinner to task for saying he already won the Davis Cup twice, pointing out how he also defended his title over the weekend in a lucrative exhibition in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re not going to return to Riyadh for another $6 million? If you win another Wimbledon, you won\u2019t go to London anymore? Pasta, coffee \u2026 Every five minutes you promote an Italian product. Do it with tennis, too,\u201d the Gazzetta editorial said, referring to the multiple Italian brands that Sinner represents in TV and other advertisements.<\/p>\n

Added 92-year-old Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open winner who was Italy\u2019s most successful player until Sinner came along: \u201cIt\u2019s a big slap in the face to the Italian sports world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italians widely defended Sinner when he was hit with a three-month doping ban in February, while other top players insinuated that he received preferential treatment because of his high status and the time frame of the ban meant that he didn’t miss any Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n

Sinner has faced discrimination<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time that Sinner has been criticised for not representing Italy. It happened when he didn’t play Davis Cup in 2023 and it happened when he didn’t play in the Paris Olympics a year later.<\/p>\n

Sinner grew up in the German-speaking autonomous region of Alto Adige in northern Italy and has also faced an underlying sentiment that he’s not fully Italian.<\/p>\n

Just last month, an Italian rapper was accused of inciting racial hatred for publishing musical lyrics saying that Sinner speaks with \u201cAdolf Hitler\u2019s accent.\u201d Fedez, the rapper, later apologised.<\/p>\n

Panatta defends Sinner<\/p>\n

Adriano Panatta, who led Italy to its only other Davis Cup triumph in 1976, defended Sinner\u2019s choice, noting how the team competition is not considered as important as it was in his playing days.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s tennis requires players to have complete devotion. The players are like CEOs of companies that carry their names,\u201d Panatta wrote in Corriere della Sera. <\/p>\n

\u201cSinner has won the Davis Cup twice and now he needs a break to gear up for his main goals: winning Slams, playing up to (Carlos) Alcaraz\u2019s level, reclaiming No. 1. Those are his priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paolo Bertolucci, who also played on the 1976 team and is now a TV commentator, agreed with Panatta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see anything wrong with the decision,\u201d Bertolucci told the Gazzetta. <\/p>\n

\u201cTennis has changed. Today what counts are the four Slams and then the ATP Finals. The rest is side stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner\u2019s decision not to play for host Italy in the Davis Cup Final 8 is being met…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-231673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}