Jannik Sinner’s major rankings milestone confirmed after Tomas Machac’s stunning win over Carlos Alcaraz
Jannik Sinner will become the 19th different player to finish the year as world No 1 after his status was confirmed following Carlos Alcaraz’s defeat to Tomas Machac at the Shanghai Masters. It is a rich reward for a stunning 2024 season for the 23-year-old as he has notched up several records during the year,…
Jannik Sinner will become the 19th different player to finish the year as world No 1 after his status was confirmed following Carlos Alcaraz’s defeat to Tomas Machac at the Shanghai Masters.
It is a rich reward for a stunning 2024 season for the 23-year-old as he has notched up several records during the year, winning his maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open before becoming the first Italian to top the world rankings.
Sinner became the 29th world No 1 when he rose to the top after the French Open and he has been there ever since, solidifying his position with his title run at the US Open.
Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev both had high hopes of catching the Italian during the final few months of the season, but the German’s hopes ended when he missed the China Open due to illness and then lost early in Shanghai.
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That left Alcaraz as the only one able to surpass Sinner, but he needed a miracle with deep runs required in Shanghai, the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals.
However, it wasn’t to be after his last-eight defeat to Machac.
Sinner moved to 9,730 points with his victory over Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-final in Shanghai while Alcaraz is on 6,710 points and Zverev on 6,215.
Alcaraz will only play in two more events – the Paris Masters and ATP Finals – and the maximum he can get is 9,210 points while Zverev has signed up for those two tournaments as well as the ATP 500 Vienna Open, but he won’t be able to catch the Italian even if he claims a hat-trick of titles as he will end on 9,210 points.
The Italian will be the third different year-end No 1 in the last three years as Novak Djokovic topped the rankings in December last year while Alcaraz was at No 1 in 2022.
Sinner has been the leader on the ATP Tour this year as he has won the most titles – six, including two Grand Slams and two ATP Masters 1000 events. He has also reached 11 semi-finals and tops the prize-money leaders list with just over $11m earned so far this season.
He has a chance to further hammer down his dominance with another title run at Shanghai Masters, but he will be wary of Machac after the Czech’s win over Alcaraz.
The Spaniard started the match on the back of a 12-match winning streak in all tournaments, he came up against a confident Machac, who came away with a 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 victory for his second win over a top-five player.
Sitting at No 33 in the rankings, Machac is the fourth-lowest ranked semi-finalist in Shanghai after Kei Nishikori (47th in 2011), Feliciano Lopez (41st in 2009) and Juan Monaco (41sts in in 2010).
