Jannik
Sinner chose a rising Spanish tennis star as his pre-season sparring partner.
The World No. 1 is in Dubai preparing for the 2025 season, with the main goal
of defending his title at the
Australian Open. While training at the Patrick
Mouratoglou Tennis Center Academy, he added
Martin Landaluce as his hitting
partner.
The young
Spaniard, 18 years old, was trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca. He
has stood out as a junior, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon Junior and
winning the 2022 US Open Junior title at 16, becoming the third youngest after
Richard Gasquet and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Sinner's new sparring partner
Sinner will
begin the season as a favourite at the Australian Open, his first tournament of
the year. The Italian ended 2024 in the best way, with the ATP Finals title and
then leading Italy to defend their Davis Cup title. He holds a nearly
4,000-point lead over Alexander Zverev in the ATP rankings and is guaranteed a
couple of months at the top of the rankings.
However,
the Italian is not complacent and is already working for the new season. While
working in Dubai, Diario As confirmed that rising star Martin Landaluce joined
Sinner's training.
The Spanish player recently won his first Challenger title
in Olbia, Italy, defeating local Mattia Bellucci in straight sets. Landaluce
was close to securing a spot in the
Next Gen ATP Finals, set to take place next
week in Jeddah, but ended up as the first alternate, one spot behind 8th-seeded
Joao Fonseca.
The Spanish
player, born in 2006, has already climbed to World No. 153 and has an ATP win
at the Miami Open, where he defeated his compatriot Jaume Munar in the first
round (6-3, 1-6, 7-5). A couple of days later, he lost in the semifinals to
16th-seed Ben Shelton (3-6, 4-6).
Landaluce
finished the season with 383 points, not far from Joao Fonseca's 409 points
(No. 145), the 8th player qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals. The Spaniard
is awaiting as an alternate and still has a chance to play in the tournament in
case of a last-minute withdrawal. Landaluce was also spotted training in Madrid
with Grigor Dimitrov a few weeks ago.