Former player questions Jannik Sinner's mental toughness heading into 2024

Jannik Sinner finished 2023 with a flourish and was playing possibly better than any other player on the ATP tour. This includes Novak Djokovic who Sinner defeated twice in November. Once was at the ATP Finals and once in the semifinals of the Davis Cup. But Sinner also lost to Djokovic in the final of the ATP Finals.

Still, Jannik Sinner had a much better second half of the year than did Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz and Sinner could be on a path for battling for Grand Salm titles for the next decade-plus. Alcaraz is only 20 years old while Sinner is just 22.

And of the two, Alcaraz was the one who has struggled more late in years. Alcaraz got injured late in 2022 and missed the year-end events. After winning Wimbledon in July, Alcaraz failed to win another tournament. Meanwhile, Sinner won three.

Davydenko seems incorrect in his summation of Jannik Sinner

But former player Nikolay Davydenko says that Sinner is the one who might be struggling more with his "psychology" over the course of the year. Maybe Davydenko was not trying to make a direct comparison between Alcaraz and Sinner, but Davydenko did compare Sinner to Djokovic while speaking to the Russian website Championat and this seems a bit unfair.

Again, Sinner is only 22 years old while Novak Djokovic has more than a decade's worth of experience than the Italian and the Serb is 36. Maybe Sinner simply has not had time to perfect how he prepares mentally for a full year. But that also does not seem true when one remembers those November victories Sinner had over Djokovic.

Davydenko told Championat, "(Sinner) often pushes himself to the limit, he still lacks something and it is difficult to endure an entire season relying only on willpower...to last the whole season like Djokovic he must be able to do something else. Maybe psychology."

Admittedly, Davydenko knows a lot more about tennis than I do. He has played the game and won tournaments. But he is also an observer at this point just like most tennis fans. We can see how well Jannik Sinner finished this year and, based on that, we should expect him to have a great 2024. Sinner also appeared mentally strong through November, so if he does lack anything it might only be experience.

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