Chaotic first meetings can leave a lasting impression, for better or worse. The former was certainly the case with Jannik Sinner and Danilo Gallinari. Aside from being two prominent figures in Italian sports, Sinner and Gallinari have since become good friends, with shared interests including cars and AC Milan. But their first meeting got off to anything but a friendly start, as their cars nearly collided.
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Gallinari, who has previously played for multiple NBA teams, recently shared details of his first meeting with Sinner. Neither initially realized who was behind the wheel of the other car as they approached the parking area of a sports facility.
“I arrive with the car and before parking you had to pass three levels of security,” Gallinari said at the Festival dello Sport di Trento. “I didn’t know where to go, so I stop at the first employee, then at the second… In all this there was a car behind me that put crazy pressure on me.
“He wanted to outdo me at all costs, but there was no room. At the third checkpoint we set off again and this car overtakes us on the right, places itself sideways and nails it. We almost collide! At that point I tell my friend to get off because I wanted to go down too to clarify the matter.”
As Gallinari went up to confront the driver, he found out that it was none other than Jannik Sinner. Turns out that he was in a hurry. The two then shared a laugh, later met again inside the facility, and a friendship was born.
“Let’s roll down the window… and from the other car Jannik Sinner lowers it! In the end we laughed, I let him pass because he had to go to training and then we met again calmly inside the arena,” he added.
As for their shared love for AC Milan, Sinner has said that he became a Rossoneri supporter while sharing an apartment with Marco Pedrazzini during his early professional years. With only one television in the house and Pedrazzini regularly watching Milan, Sinner eventually found himself converted to the club. Both Sinner and Gallinari have crossed paths with former Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali, with Sinner exchanging a racquet for a shirt and Gallinari also swapping jerseys with the midfielder.
Similarly, cars are more than a passing interest for Sinner. In a 2026 interview, he revealed that they were among the few major purchases he genuinely loved and said he sometimes unwinds after training by driving for 20 to 30 minutes with music playing. He has also developed friendships with Ferrari endurance drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Interestingly, Sinner, also a motorbike enthusiast, obtained his motorcycle license on October 2, 2026, on his fifth attempt — just days before Gallinari shared the anecdote.
Their first meeting may have been chaotic, but it was the start of a great friendship. The two were spotted together at the Miami Open this year. Gallinari announced his retirement from basketball in December 2025, while Sinner is currently the No. 1 player in the ATP rankings. However, he is currently sidelined by a knee injury and has ended his 2026 season early to undergo further treatment.
That said, Jannik Sinner seems to have a knack for turning incidental, not-so-great first encounters into friendships.
Sinner’s friendship with Jack Draper also began on a less-than-promising note. The pair first crossed paths as teenagers at an Under-18 Grade 1 ITF tournament in Berlin in 2017, when they faced each other in doubles. Draper did not even know Sinner at the time, and his first impression was hardly one of the Italian being a future superstar.
“I remember playing him in doubles, and we were saying, ‘Oh, hit to him because he’s not the best player on the court,’” Draper recalled in 2024.
Sinner and Draper did not become friends at the time, or even properly get acquainted. When they met again at Queen’s Club in 2021, Draper said he had “never spoken to him until today.”
Their relationship, though, eventually changed completely. By 2024, Draper was calling Sinner “a good friend,” with whom he was “definitely close,” while Sinner said they kept in touch through good and bad moments and called theirs “a great friendship.”