Jannik Sinner has established himself as a powerhouse on the ATP Tour in 2024, marking his authority at the highest level.
In a display that underpinned his standout season, Sinner muscled his way past Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 6-3 in Sunday’s championship match at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. In claiming his Tour-leading seventh title of 2024, the World No. 1 claimed a personal best 65th win of the season, shining a light on the improvements he has made to his game.
“I changed some things. I feel like physically I'm ready to play for a longer amount of time at the highest level possible,” said Sinner, who improved to 8-2 on the season vs. Top-5 players on hard courts. “Mentally I'm ready to accept every tough situation on the court, and I think that's the biggest step I have made forward.
“I’m just trying to stay as calm as possible and to keep working hard. It doesn't really matter if you have a good week or a bad week, I’m just trying to improve daily, to be mature enough to understand what's working, and I feel like that for me made a big impact this year, and hopefully it's going to help me also for next year.”
The last selfie of the week, now with a trophy in hand 🏆🙂↕️@janniksin | @SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/s3djDV78Fb
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 13, 2024Sinner, who secured ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours after Saturday’s semi-final win against Tomas Machac, held his nerve to improve to 24-8 in tie-breaks in 2024 after sealing the opening set. From there, the Italian clicked into gear to become the youngest Shanghai champion after one hour and 37 minutes.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” added Sinner, who became the first player to win three ATP Masters 1000 titles in one season since Rafael Nadal in 2018. “It is a very special moment, winning any tournament is amazing, but especially this one here, so we're going to enjoy it, for sure, but nothing crazy.”
Djokovic was bidding to become just the third man to win 100 tour-level titles (Connors, Federer), but came unstuck against the bruising ballstriking of the World No. 1. With his third consecutive victory against Djokovic, Sinner levelled the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 4-4.
Sinner, who became the first player to win more than six ATP Tour titles in one season since Andy Murray won nine in 2016, credits the nature of his working environment to his prolonged success on the court in 2024.
“I will keep working hard, me and my team. I have these two new members in my team where I feel like I can learn many things,” said Sinner, who started working with physio Ulises Badio and fitness trainer Marco Panichi last month. “With Simone [Vagnozzi] and Darren [Cahill], it's a great combination of coaches and the all-around team, it helps me a lot, it's very comfortable to stay with them.
“I always feel like it’s part of the family already, so it's nice. We will keep working hard. We're going to try out some new things off the court, just to see what's going to help me or not. I feel like the work there will never stop, so I'm looking forward to that.”
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