In the foothills of the Dolomites, a champion was made

Skip to main contentIntroductionSextenBordigheraPiatti AcademyAntwerpWimbledonInnichenIt was in the foothills of the Dolomite mountains that a three-year-old Jannik Sinner took his first steps towards becoming the world's best player.It started on the ski slopes, where he was so good he later became a giant slalom runner-up in the junior national championships.Sinner also showed enormous promise on the football pitch with an instinctive ability to play with both feet.But tennis soon started to take over Sinner's life in the mountain village of Sexten, just a short hike from the Austrian border.It is a picturesque, peaceful place. Street signs are presented in both Italian and German, but the main language is a German dialect. Plates in restaurants regularly carry meat and dumplings, as if you were ordering from an Austrian or German menu.It may not look an obvious launchpad for the career of a future world number one - but, as the dome that stretches over a nearby indoor tennis courts proclaims, it is "where champions are born".Sinner's first coach was family friend Andreas Schönegger. Having given the infant Sinner an introduction to life on skis in his fourth winter, he was entrusted with tennis lessons the following summer.Sinner was a slight child - often the smallest in his group - but what he lacked in physical presence he more than made up for in talent.Family friend Andreas Schönegger"Everybody thinks when they see this guy on the court that to beat him is not a problem, but he had incredible technique from the beginning," Schönegger told BBC Sport."The hair was long and red, similar to a girl. The first tournament he played, I remember the group asking me 'Andy, why today plays a girl with us?'"And I tell them - this is not a girl, it's a very, very strong boy!"Schönegger has a lot of praise for Sinner's parents. Father Hanspeter - also known as Johann - would sometimes work a 14-hour shift as a chef in the kitchens of a local ski lodge before heading to th...