What a year Jannik Sinner is having! The 22-year-old’s professional and personal lives have intersected, both taking off in the direction of success. The Italian player won the biggest title of his career at the Australian Open earlier this season, following it up by clinching the trophy in Rotterdam and Miami. His tremendous success led him to a career-best ranking of Number 2, and now he’s broken the silence with a major revelation about his girlfriend.

Ahead of the French Open, there were widespread reports on social media that Jannik Sinner was dating Russian tennis player, Anna Kalinskaya. The two had been spotted having dinner together and even attended each other’s opening matches at Roland Garros yesterday.

However, Sinner has finally put these rumors to rest by revealing that the two are indeed dating each other. The Italian star confirmed this after winning his opening-round match at the French Open. He revealed in Italian, “You know me, I don’t like to talk about my private life, but we are together.” Notoriously private, Sinner continued, “Yes, I’m with Anna, but we keep everything very confidential. I won’t say more.”

Interestingly, while talk of Sinner’s hip injury and his climbing to the World No. 1 spot to usurp Novak Djokovic has not died down, this dating news has grabbed major headlines. Kalinskaya, who has previously dated ATP player Nick Kyrgios, is yet to comment.

Before this, Sinner had reportedly been dating Italian model Maria Braccini, who supposedly accompanied him to Miami as well. But given their private nature, neither confirmed a split, although it is assumed to have happened sometime earlier this year. Now the ATP star has apparently moved on.

This is the first time that Sinner has opened up about his relationship with his fellow tennis player. Before this, the two have remained tight-lipped and away from the lens of social media. This might be probably due to the fact that Sinner wants to keep his personal life away from the eyes of his fans.

Jannik Sinner will never make his ‘girl’ known on social media

Due to his tremendous rise this year, Sinner has often been under the public lens. He is closely followed by the fans with regard to his tennis life but intends to keep his private life separate from his professional one and away from the fanfare. As a result, he made an honest confession during an interview once.

Sinner revealed, “Whether or not I am with a girl will never be known on social media. Because I want to keep my private life private. I don’t need to post a photo to show whether I’m engaged. I never posted pictures with my parents, maybe one with my brother.”

Even last year, he told Vanity Fair, “I want to protect the people closest to me, keeping them out of this. I see it as a small task to carry out, almost a duty: they helped me, when I was young, to gain self-confidence, and today in some way I want to protect them.”

We might seldom expect that Sinner and Kalinskaya will share glimpses of their private life on social media. Meanwhile, the two are fully focused on the task at hand, that is, to dig deep at the French Open. While Kalinskaya will open her campaign later today, Sinner progressed to the second round after a comfortable win over Chris Eubanks.