Jannik Sinner just admitted something pretty surprising in a fun video with fellow Italian player Flavio Cobolli – he actually loves skiing more than tennis.
The world No. 1 was competing at this week’s 2025 Halle Open, his first tournament since that heartbreaking loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Roland Garros final.
Talk about a tough way to lose a Grand Slam. Sinner was up three championship points in the fourth set but still lost in a deciding set tiebreak.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jannik Sinner | 24 | 15,405 | 33 - 3 |
His week in Halle didn’t go much better. Alexander Bublik knocked him out in the round of 16, winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Kazakhstani player can be really tricky on grass when he’s serving well, and that’s exactly what happened.
Good Spirits Despite Recent Struggles
But here’s the thing – Sinner seemed to be in pretty good spirits before that match against Bublik.
Sure, he’s admitted to having some sleepless nights after that Roland Garros defeat. But he’s also been talking maturely about how it was actually his best run ever at the French Open, especially on a surface that used to give him real problems.
That positive mindset really showed in the video he did with Cobolli. His fellow Italian briefly took over as admin of the ATP Tour’s X page and fired three questions at the three-time Grand Slam champion.
The Skiing Confession
First question was easy enough – what’s your favorite surface? No surprise there. Sinner picked hard courts, which makes total sense since that’s where he’s won all his Grand Slams and Masters 1000 titles. Plus his 2024 ATP Finals victory on indoor hard court.
But the second question caught people off guard.
When Cobolli asked whether he preferred skiing or playing tennis, Sinner initially tried to dodge it. He said he liked skiing more in the winter.
Cobolli wasn’t having it. He pushed for a definitive answer between the two sports.
Without much hesitation, Sinner picked skiing.
Cobolli didn’t seem surprised at all, which tells you this probably isn’t the first time they’ve talked about this.
Why Skiing Makes Sense
When you look at Sinner’s background, the answer isn’t that shocking. The guy started skiing when he was just three years old.
He was actually one of Italy’s top junior skiers until age 12. That’s when he started skiing less to focus more on tennis.
These days, Sinner spends a lot of his off-season time skiing with family and friends. When you’re traveling constantly and dealing with the crazy schedule that comes with being one of the world’s best players, the off-season is basically your only chance to hit the slopes.
It’s his way of switching off after competing from January all the way through November. The 23-year-old regularly makes finals at tournaments he plays, so you can imagine how tiring and stressful a full season gets.
An Unexpected Break This Year
Actually, Sinner had a pretty unusual three-month break this season from February until just before the 2025 Italian Open in May.
This happened because he and his team accepted a three-month suspension from the World Anti-Doping Agency to settle his high-profile doping case.
Sinner still maintains he was innocent. But his lawyer advised taking the three-month ban just in case the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to hand down something harsher. He had a CAS hearing scheduled before they reached the settlement.
Nobody wants a suspension, obviously. But the break actually allowed him to refresh and do some serious physical work.
Sinner is noticeably more muscular than he was before the ban.
Maybe all that extra training time – and probably some skiing too – will pay off as he heads into the grass court season and prepares for Wimbledon.