It’s very simple. Andrea Pellegrino, world No. 145, a regular on the Challenger circuit, was a wildcard at the Rome Masters 1000 in May 2026. He beat Frances Tiafoe, went through to the last 16, and there he ran into Jannik Sinner. On 1 October, on a podcast, he said what that feels like.
He said: “You only realise how big he is when you’re close to him. On television, a lot gets missed, but up close, you understand the greatness of the person and of the character. Him and Alcaraz, that’s something else.”
I respect that. But. Me, from my armchair in Uccle, or Waterloo depending on the year, I saw the stature on television. Nothing escaped me. I said it back in January that Sinner was part of the Federer-Nadal family. Well, in January of one year or another, the spirit was there. You have to be a metre away from him to understand? In ninety percent of cases, and I’m being kind, a good pundit understands from three and a half metres away, in front of a screen.
Pellegrino also talks about Federer: “When Roger walked in, everybody turned round to look at him; he gave off a mystical presence, different from everyone else’s.” Me, in Kitzbühel, in ’92, when I walked into the locker room, two people turned round. The context was different, there was a draught.
He adds that at the club in Rome, Sinner never hung around and probably went straight from the club to the hotel. That’s exactly what I’ve been repeating for years to my club league (interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league) players at Léopold: you don’t hang around at the bar. Nobody listens to me.
Silly question, but if you see everything up close and nothing on TV, Jean-Pol, how did you see it?
Careful, I’m not saying the opposite of what I said. I’m clarifying: I have a very big television, eh.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
