At the Wimbledon champions’ dinner on 13 July, hours after beating Alexander Zverev for a second straight All England Club title, Jannik Sinner was asked about one thing he had not managed to win in 2026: a motorbike licence.

“I’ve failed it four times,” he told the room.

“Before coming here, I failed once again. Maybe next year you ask me the same question.”

He did not have to wait a year. On Friday, Monaco driving school Monaco Bonne Conduite confirmed on its social media that Sinner had passed the test. Italian wire LaPresse put it bluntly in its own report: the Italian had done it at the fifth attempt.

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The driving school’s post thanked him for his “trust and kindness” and said it was proud to have supported him through the training.

A Vespa, a car licence and a loophole

The absurdity of the whole affair is that Sinner has been riding around Monte Carlo on two wheels for years. The principality where he lives allows holders of a car licence to ride scooters up to 125cc and 11kW, and he has been photographed often enough on his Vespa.

The exam he kept failing is the step up: the full A licence that allows him to ride something bigger than a scooter. It involves a theory test, a closed-circuit practical with a weaving exercise, and a session on public roads.

He had the time because tennis has had to wait

Part of the reason this story broke in October and not in July is that Sinner has not touched a tennis ball in anger for almost three months. A right knee issue picked up around the Wimbledon final has kept him off the ATP Tour ever since.

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He skipped the US Open, pulled out of the China Open he was defending in Beijing, and spent much of September in Monte Carlo rehabilitating with his medical team.

The next entry on his schedule, if his knee holds up, is the Rolex Shanghai Masters, which begins on 7 October at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena. Zverev, who followed up his Wimbledon final defeat by winning the US Open, has closed to within 2,000 ATP points of Sinner at the top of the rankings.

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