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(Reuters) – Jannik Sinner said he plays with a different mindset now and is not afraid to predict he can win the ‘big, big games’ when the Italian returns to the pitch in front of his home fans in Rome this week.
Sinner withdrew from the Barcelona Open quarter-finals last month due to illness and missed the Madrid Open the following week, but the 21-year-old said he was fully fit for the Italian Open.
Sinner, eighth seeded in Rome, reached the quarterfinals for the first time last year and is looking to go the distance this time.
“I have a different mindset now,” he told the ATP website on Tuesday. “I’m not afraid to say I can win big, big games. I’m here, I can do it… But in another way you have to have the right respect for each and every player.
“Every player is so tough. Sometimes it’s not easy emotionally either. But if I go in my direction, I want to go to my limits because I know that I can show very good tennis there.”
Sinner has been in fine form this season, having won his seventh tour-level title in Montpellier and reaching the finals in Miami and Rotterdam.
The Italian Open runs until May 21, with the French Open Grand Slam starting a week later in Paris.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
