When he came on the circuit as a precocious teen with prodigious talent, Jannik Sinner was often too focused to smile. The Italian was not interested in having fun after all, he wanted to find a way to quickly climb the ladder, to prove himself a top-flight talent in an ATP tour that was populated by behemoths like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

These days, just about five years into his Grand Slam career, Sinner is finally learning to let his playful side show.

Just Google “Sinner Baywatch Bod” and you’ll see what we mean (watch below if you missed it).

It’s a welcome sight for a player that could have been accused of taking the sport too seriously by some in the past. That’s not the case anymore, and Sinner talked about it after his third-round thrashing of Argentina’s Sebastian Baez.

Sometimes you have to smile

“In matches, I used to be really, really serious, which I still am, obviously,” he told a reporter who asked him about a moment of levity he enjoyed with his team during the third set of his Day 6 tussle with Baez. “But, you know, even in practice sessions I consider myself as a really hard worker, but sometimes you have to smile, you have to laugh a little bit, because it’s also important, no, and it change your attitude on the court a little bit. I think in a positive way.

“And today was the same. On 5-3 I joked a little bit, because it gives myself also a little bit of motivation sometimes.”

It may function as a small part of the Sinner evolution story, but there may be more to the story than just a few laughs. The blossoming of Sinner the person may be directly related to the success of his tennis. In a tour where mental health issues can penetrate the cracks of even the best player’s armour, and drag down performance in dramatic fashion, it is indeed a blessing that Sinner is developing the tools and capacity to enjoy more than simply winning tennis matches.

And that is why when you hear the Italian joking about his desire to have Baywatch muscles we must do a double-take and ask that if we peel back the layers of the onion, is there more to it than we first thought?