Jannik Sinner is a Gucci poster boy, has a model girlfriend, drives Ferraris and has earnings of $12m
Jannik Sinner may be a poster boy for Gucci but the Italian has proved on the tennis court he has the substance to back up the style.
The 22-year-old ended the Australian Open dominance of Novak Djokovic with a stunning semi-final win on Friday and is now within touching distance of his first Grand Slam.
Sinner inflicted the all-conquering Djokovic’s first Melbourne defeat since 2018, proving the emerging generation in tennis do actually have the game and the bottle to beat the old guard.
Victory in Sunday’s final would elevate the multi-talented Sinner to a whole new level, with many years ahead to cement his place in tennis history.
Sinner combines tennis ability and looks which have earned him partnerships with luxury fashion house Gucci and iconic Italian car marque Ferrari.
He is dating the stunning model and influencer Maria Braccini but chooses to keep their relationship very private.
She has a closed Instagram profile and Sinner rarely posts pictures of them together, with both preferring the private life, something that may be tested as his face grows.
Despite his tender years, Sinner already has an estimated new worth of $12million [£9.46m] and Australian Open success this weekend will net him a further $2.1m [£1.65m] in prize money.
Victory will also delight Sinner’s dedicated fan club – known as the ‘Carota Boys’ or ‘Carrot Boys’ after his red hair.
Born in August 2001 in San Candido, a small town in northern Italy near to the Austrian border, Sinner grew up in humble surroundings with parents Hanspeter and Siglinde, and was a skiing champion as a boy.
He has a brother, Mark, but details about the family are scarce. They are rarely seen at his matches and his social media is dominated by endorsement deals and professional images from on court.
Sinner shared a rare photo of him and his brother in 2019 but fans find the dynamics of the family mysterious, although they are widely viewed as hard-working with strong moral values.
Sinner, who now lives in Monte-Carlo, adopts a similarly private relationship with his girlfriend, Braccini.
The model, who has 103,000 followers on her private Instagram page, has been described as ‘introverted’ and ‘fiercely private’, often keeping a low profile around the bright lights of Sinner’s burgeoning career.
Braccini has watched him at Wimbledon but managed to evade the cameras, something Sinner seems happy with.
But back to Sinner’s early life and things could have turned out so differently had patience been applied to his skiing career.
‘Skiing is quite a common sport to get into from where I am. There are a lot of ski slopes just literally outside of my front door,’ Sinner once told ATPTour.com.
‘I remember the first time I went skiing. My brother was having some lessons and I saw him and I wanted to go but my mum told me “Not today”.
‘I kept crying to her and asking and then she said “OK, let’s do this”. They were expecting me to go once and then I would go home. But I stayed all day until they closed the slopes. Then I went every day and loved it.’
