Humble Italian is in his first grand slam as world No 1, but he has won six ATP titles since last year’s semi-final defeat.
Everything you need to know about Jannik Sinner can be summed up in the words he uttered in the immediate aftermath of his painful defeat against Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals here last year. “I’m going to learn about this and hopefully I can improve.”
And improve he did. This time last year, Sinner was ranked No 8 in the world, an obvious talent but somewhat overshadowed by the meteoric rise of Carlos Alcaraz, who had already been ranked No 1 and had become a grand slam title winner. As Sinner was licking his wounds, Alcaraz won his first Wimbledon and the gap seemed to be widening.
Since then, though, the Italian has been tearing it up. He has won six ATP titles since Wimbledon, helped Italy to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1976, won his first grand slam title and become the first Italian man to top the ATP rankings. He is 38-3 in 2024 so far, with his only defeats coming against Alcaraz (twice) and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
After recovering from a hip injury, he reached the semi-finals at the French Open and showed his grass‑court prowess by winning in Halle just over a week ago.
