27 | January | 2021 | Tennis Courts Map Directory

Struff Ready For ATP Cup: ‘I Want To Be Tested’

Posted: Jan 27, 2021

Jan-Lennard Struff came to Melbourne looking for challenges and the ATP Cup will deliver those. Struff’s country, Germany, was dealt a tough draw in Group A against defending champion Serbia and Canada.

After reaching a career-high No. 29 in the FedEx ATP Rankings last year, Struff will once again be Germany’s No. 2 singles player alongside Alexander Zverev. Two-time Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies complete a strong lineup that’s eager for redemption after falling in the group stage in 2020. Germany will be led by team captain Mischa Zverev.

Struff spoke to ATPTour.com before the tournament to discuss the keys to success for his country and why he enjoys being part of a team.

Why are you excited about representing Team Germany again in the ATP Cup?
The event last year was really great and it was so much fun to play. It was a good start to the year, and I’m looking forward to starting this year the same way as well. It’s very nice to start with a team, playing with your friends and colleagues. We have a good team chemistry and it’s always nice to play for Germany.

You’ve said you are a player who enjoys the team atmosphere. What is the best part of that?
I think it’s very nice that your teammates are there to support you. In case you lose, they are there to make sure you don’t feel that bad. Sometimes another player has a chance to [help] the team still win, so it’s very important to keep going. You need two points to win the tie, so it’s not all about you, but you want to win your match and get one point out of those two.

I like the support and that we all give everything. Everyone stands together, we’re in the locker room together. We are used to travelling nearly the whole year by ourselves, so it’s very nice and I like it a lot.

What is your favourite memory from last year’s ATP Cup?
Well, it was very rough with the results. We went out in the group stages. But it was so nice to be there with the team. I liked a lot that so many people donated to Aces for Bushfire Relief and everyone stood together. That was beautiful. Everyone was doing their job. Everyone was donating. That was really nice, all of the teams [doing that] together.

What does Team Germany look like this year?
We have a great team. Sascha Zverev, he qualified us and I’m so pleased about that. He’s such a good player. He played semi-finals here [at the Australian Open]… final of the US Open and he won so many ATP Masters 1000 titles already at his young age.

We have Kevin [Krawietz] and Andy [Mies], who won Roland Garros twice, which is unreal. Winning once is crazy. Back-to-back? No one would expect this. That was so, so nice and so good. And we have Mischa Zverev, who is the team captain now. He’s very nice… It’s really nice to have him now on the team.

You’re in Group A with strong No. 2 players Milos Raonic and Dusan Lajovic. You must be looking forward to that challenge.
Yeah, for sure. We’ve been practising a long time. We started, I think, the 30th of November and we had a long, long practice [block]. After the quarantine here, we’ll have a lot of practice sessions. I’m really looking forward to competing here.

It will be two really hard opponents — Lajovic with Serbia and Raonic with Canada — but I’m looking forward to the matches. I want to be tested in these matches. They are both ahead of me in the [FedEx ATP] Rankings, so I know they are going to be very difficult matches, but I’m really looking forward to it.

There are four Top 20 players who are the No. 2 singles players for their country. How much of a factor is that second player at ATP Cup?
Yeah, it’s very important. You compete as a team, so you need to have a good team to go far and to win. With the format, you need two points and the team consists of four players and a team captain. If you have good depth in your team, that’s very important. You need every shot you can get at those points. I think we have a good team. I hope we can go far, but the group is really tough. Let’s see what it brings us.

What will be the key for Germany to get through Group A against Serbia and Canada, led by Novak Djokovic and Denis Shapovalov?
Teamwork. There are going to be tough matches for Sascha, playing Novak who won in Australia on these courts, won Grand Slams. Djokovic said in all his career this was the best court where he won the most matches and won the most tournaments. For sure, he’s got great memories of this. No matter what court he plays on, Djokovic in Australia is very tough.

But Sascha is a great player and he has a shot there. He beat [Djokovic] already, for example at the Nitto ATP Finals in the final, when he won it. To play Shapovalov, who is a great player as well, that’s another tough match. And for me, there are also some very tough matches.

So every match is just hard, but that’s the kind of level we have at the ATP Cup. That’s why people like it, and that’s why I like it.

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Sinner's Secret Weapon: His Mind

Posted: Jan 27, 2021

Jannik Sinner’s talent is unquestionable. Many players, analysts and fans alike feel it’s a matter of when, not if, the Italian will ascend to the top of the sport. But it’s not just the teenager’s natural ability that will take him there. It’s his mind.

That’s not necessarily something you’d expect from a 19-year-old, who was not born until six months after Roger Federer won his first ATP Tour title. But the #NextGenATP star speaks more like a mental coach than a rising star who is learning the ropes.

“I think every day you have lessons, [whether] you do something good [or] if you do something bad,” Sinner told ATPTour.com. “If you’re smart, you can take something new every day.”

Many young players take time to acclimate to life as a professional tennis player. Yet Sinner won the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals — the 21-and-under season finale — at the age of 18. He was not wrapped up in the moment or the hype, though. Instead of looking around him and getting absorbed by his newfound stardom, Sinner’s sole concern was improving for the long term.

That is a big reason why there was no sophomore slump for the Italian during the 2020 season, which was shortened due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Sinner climbed from No. 78 to No. 37 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. Nobody else who finished inside the year-end Top 50 ascended as many spots as the teen.

Sinner didn’t snap his fingers and suddenly soar upwards, either. The San Candido native focussed on giving his best on a daily basis, and that paid off.

“[In] tennis, you wake up and you never know how you are going to feel on court. That’s the funny part. For sure, I improved physically, mentally and all the rest,” Sinner said. “But sometimes you wake up, you don’t feel well on court and maybe you have to accept that your opponent is playing better than you…. If we talk about improving, I think physically, I am okay. The shots are getting stronger as well. Maybe the unforced errors I have to improve a little bit to make them less.

“[But] for me the funny part of tennis is you wake up and maybe you play incredibly and you can win against everybody. Sometimes you play badly and you lose matches you normally should win.”

That doesn’t bother Sinner. The way the Italian approaches matches is that irrespective of whether he wins or loses, he always learns. That’s a commendable mindset for a player who competed professionally for the first time less than three years ago. This might surprise you, but Sinner was out by the second round in 15 of his 18 tournaments in 2018.

“I always put myself in difficult conditions. When I was young I tried to play Futures, [and I] lost many, many first-round matches. Obviously the other [players] were much better than me. But I stayed there, I trained with them trying to get better and every day I improved something,” Sinner said. “Even if it was tough, you travel around the world. I’ve been in Monastir, Sharm El Sheikh, all these [places] where every player wants to win. You are there and maybe playing a little bit worse than everyone else, and you have to find a way to win.”

Sinner has been guided by Riccardo Piatti, who has previously coached the likes of Ivan Ljubicic, Richard Gasquet, Milos Raonic and Novak Djokovic.

“For me, it’s really important to educate the player more than coaching him. With all my players I’ve always tried to deal with their existing talent. These players are all very good. What we need to do, or at least what I like to do, is to give them order, to bring out what is already in them,” Piatti said. “Jannik was very young when he came to me and he still had to learn a lot from every point of view. But the more they improve, the more they need someone who’s there to educate them [in] this game.”

Sinner reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year, becoming the youngest player to advance that far on the Parisian clay since 19-year-old Novak Djokovic did so in 2006. At that tournament, where Sinner beat established stars David Goffin and Alexander Zverev, perhaps the Italian’s most impressive match was the one he lost. Thirteen-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal beat Sinner in straight sets in the last eight, but the teen went blow-for-blow with the legendary Spaniard in the first two sets.

“The day when I played against Rafa, you can see many things in one match [that I need to improve],” Sinner said. “I think that’s the biggest lesson. Every day you can learn something.”

One month later, Sinner won his first ATP Tour title at the Sofia Open.

“It means a lot [to win]. When you work day after day, you go to sleep when you are completely done, when you are very tired. You work for winning,” Sinner said. “You always have to trust the process. There are difficult times and there are good times and when you play finals, it’s good. That’s what you’re working for.”

That is why Sinner, the youngest player in the Top 100, is not going to think about his success, despite being at a career-high World No. 36.

“It’s great progress,” Sinner said of how far he has come. “But there’s still a lot of work to do.”

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