Jannik Sinner has managed to get a new impressive record at the ATP Finals 2024, which is evidence of an incredible and successful season. The Italian has obtained the 13th victory against top-10 players in the ranking, after having achieved it last year. The ATP No.1 has become the 5th tennis player aged 23 or younger to obtain this type of record in at least two consecutive seasons. Jannik succeeds Bjorn Borg (1977-1979), Ivan Lendl (1980-1982), Pete Sampras (1993-1994) and Rafael Nadal (2008-2009). The milestone has not been reached during their careers by Swiss Maestro Roger Federer and Serbian champion Novak Djokovic.
The success obtained against Alex de Minaur, the first at the ATP Finals in Turin in the round robin, was worth the 66th victory of the year, against just 6 defeats. The defeats so far have come against Carlos Alcaraz (3), Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon, Andrey Rublev in Canada and Stefanos Tsitsipas (the only athlete outside the top 10) on the red clay of Monte-Carlo. The 23-year-old will try to touch the threshold of 70 already in Turin: the next opponents will be Taylor Fritz in a few hours and again the Russian Medvedev, with the aim of making 3 wins out of 3 to overcome the group as the first in the ranking. At that point there will be the final stages of the year-end Master, in which Jannik could meet the other two favorites for the victory Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, despite the younf spanish champion seems in doubt, after his stomach problems; problems which forced him to left the training session of today.
At the press conference after his victory against De Minaur, Sinner stressed his satisfaction with the performance after a period of four weeks in which he had not played official matches, also because he had missed the Paris Rolex Masters due to a virus.
“For me it’s a great start, considering that I haven’t played an official match for a long time. I’m happy that I was able to play at this level against Alex. At the beginning I had some difficulties and I think it’s normal, then I found myself on the court and I’m very happy. I think it’s always difficult to play against him. He’s a great fighter. You have to earn every point you play. We don’t just have to look at the result, but also how the match goes. Even today he was close to me in some moments. I managed to get away in the first and also in the second set but if he had kept the advantage at the beginning the set could have ended quite quickly in his favor so. Fritz? I think he’s improved a lot in the last two and a half years. He serves a lot better. He hits the ball very hard. He’s a great opponent and he played a great match against Medvedev. I have to be at my best if I want to win. I trained with him at the beginning of the week. It’s going to be tough. I know that. I know I have to do it, I have to raise my level. I hope I can do it, then we’ll see how it goes,” he explained.
Journalists in the media room asked him about his relationship with sup coach Simone Vagnozzi and how the matches are prepared.
“At the beginning it took time to get to know each other. Then I started to understand him and he started to understand me as a player and also as a person. Of course I’m very happy with how things are going. I feel that we still have room for improvement. He studies the opponents, gives me directions and I have to be brave trying to understand when to use certain things on the court,” answered the Italian.
