Respected analyst questions Jannik Sinner’s rivals for glowingly praising the Italian

Tennis commentator Mark Petchey has taken issue with the fact Jannik Sinner’s rivals were so generous with their praise for the Italian after he became world No 1.

The former British No 1 questioned whether Sinner’s fellow ATP players should do this while “battles are still raging” and suggested they should instead wait until “the war is over.”

Last week, Sinner overtook Novak Djokovic to attain the ATP world No 1 ranking for the first time and become the first top-ranked Italian player in tennis history.

The 22-year-old recently received congratulations for his achievement by 16 former men’s world No 1s, including Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Bjorn Borg.

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Sinner is competing at this week’s Halle Open along with some of his rivals, including Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Italian defeated Tallon Griekspoor in the opening round of the ATP 500 grass-court event on Tuesday in his first match as world No 1. He will take on Fabian Marozsan in the second round as he continues his bid for a maiden title on grass.

Medvedev, Zverev, Rublev and Tsitsipas, along with world No 44 Christopher Eubanks, all spoke warmly about the Australian Open champion in their pre-tournament interviews with Tennis TV in Halle.

Rublev said: “Everyone loves Jannik. I mean, I can say only from my side. But I never heard something any player said something not nice about Jannik. So everybody really likes him as a person, respects him.”

Tsitsipas was also full of praise, saying: “He’s very popular and he’s a very talented individual. A great guy, you know, one of the nicest on tour.

“I admire a lot of things about him. His competitiveness, his amazing personality that he has to bring on and off the court. And obviously a great representative of tennis in my opinion.”

In a post replying to a video of Sinner’s rivals lauding him on X, Petchey asked whether making these comments was beneficial.

The former world No 80 wrote: “Isn’t this the sort of things rivals should do when the war is over, not when the battles are still raging?”

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