Raducanu in 'really fit place' as grass season begins
Britain’s Emma Raducanu says she is in a “really fit place” as she prepares to start her grass-court season at the Nottingham Open.
Britain’s Emma Raducanu says she is in a “really fit place” as she prepares to start her grass-court season at the Nottingham Open.
Jack Draper made a winning return to grass on Monday at the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart, where he defeated Sebastian Ofner 7-6(4), 7-6(5) to earn his first tour-level victory on the surface outside of Great Britain.
The 22-year-old missed the grass swing last season due to injury but has performed impressively on the surface in the past, reaching the semi-finals at the ATP 250 event in Eastbourne in 2022.
[ATP APP]Draper looked comfortable against Ofner in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, rallying from a break down in the second set to advance after one hour and 40 minutes. The lefty will next face former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings Andy Murray or American Marcos Giron.
“I thought it was a really good match,” Draper said. “I thought we both played clean tennis, both of us were executing really well. When it came down to it I think I competed really well and I am glad to get over the line. It is good to be back on grass as well.”
In other action, Germany’s Dominik Koepfer clawed past Chinese star Zhang Zhizhen 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6). The home favourite saved two match points in the third-set tie-break before eventually advancing on his first match point after two hours and 37 minutes. It is the first time Koepfer has won a tour-level match on grass since 2021, when he beat Soonwoo Kwon in the second round at Wimbledon.
Koepfer, who is making his second appearance in Stuttgart, will next meet fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti or French wild card Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
In an-all German clash, Yannick Hanfmann defeated wild card Henri Squire 6-3, 6-3. Hanfmann did not face a break point according to Infosys ATP Stats to advance after 63 minutes. The 32-year-old next plays defending champion Frances Tiafoe.
Day 1 of main-draw action was rounded out with a maiden tour-level grass win for Hamad Medjedovic. The 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF champion rallied past Fabian Marozsan 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4 on his Stuttgart debut. His next opponent in Germany will be third seed Alexander Bublik.
Serving Rockets 🚀@MedjedovicHamad with some huge serving on both 1st and 2nd 🔥#ShotQuality is calculated in real-time by analysing each shot’s speed, spin, depth, width, and the impact it has on the opponent#TennisInsights | @atptour | @boss__open pic.twitter.com/UNMyUL2NAC
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) June 10, 2024
Jannik Sinner has today become the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. He is the first Italian man or woman to reach World No. 1 in singles since computerised rankings were introduced in 1973.
The 22-year-old began the year at World No. 4. But with a remarkable surge to start 2024, highlighted by his first major title at the Australian Open, an ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami and semi-finals at Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo and Roland Garros, Sinner is now the 29th player to stand at the summit of men’s professional tennis.
“It represents a great result of work ethic. It was one of my goals for myself and my team this year. The most important goal is always to improve as a player and as a person, surrounding myself with great people. I think I can be very happy and pleased with what I am doing as well as my team”, Sinner said. “In the last period I’ve played some really good tennis. I’m very happy to be in this position.”
Read ATPTour.com’s Number Ones Series
Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said: “Jannik’s rise to World No. 1 has been nothing short of remarkable. This is our sport’s most challenging and impressive accomplishment, requiring immense dedication, determination and self-belief. It’s reflected by the exclusive list of tennis greats who have held the top spot, with Jannik becoming only the 29th player to achieve the No. 1 ranking in over 50 years of history. Jannik can be immensely proud of everything he has accomplished. On behalf of the ATP, we are thrilled to join his many fans in celebrating this moment. At just 22 years old, he has an incredible road ahead. It will be fascinating to watch his journey continue.”
Sinner first entered the PIF ATP Rankings on 12 February 2018 aged 16 and less than two years later, on 28 October 2019, he cracked the world’s Top 100. Shortly thereafter, the Italian won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF at just 18 years of age.
Your new ATP World No. 1 presented by PIF 🏆
ATP Tour Chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi, presented Jannik Sinner with the trophy at the Monte-Carlo Country Club 🙌#S1NNER | #PIF | #ATPRankings | #partner pic.twitter.com/OjQQec3kmm
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 10, 2024
Over the past 52 weeks, during which Sinner has earned the points that helped him to World No. 1, he has tallied a 15-4 record against Top 10 opponents. Nine of his victories during that stretch have come against current or former World No. 1s: Novak Djokovic (3), Carlos Alcaraz (1) and Daniil Medvedev (5).
Entering last August’s National Bank Open presented by Rogers, Sinner had never lifted an ATP Masters 1000 or major trophy. Since then he has claimed six titles, including Masters 1000 triumphs in Toronto and Miami, as well as his maiden Grand Slam victory at Melbourne Park. His other crowns came at ATP 500 events: Beijing, Vienna and Rotterdam.
[ATP APP]One of Sinner’s biggest highlights came at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, where he competed for the second time. The Italian won his group with an undefeated record before defeating Medvedev to reach the championship match. His run further boosted his stardom both at home and around the globe.
Immediately following that run, Sinner led Italy to Davis Cup glory for the first time since 1976. It was just the country’s second victory in the event.
Sinner’s rise to No.1 brings Djokovic’s current stint at the top to a close. The Serbian has spent a record 428 total weeks at No.1 to date. Sinner joins a list of six active players who have ascended to World No. 1: Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Medvedev and Alcaraz.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Jannik Sinner says “we go hunting now” after becoming the first Italian to reach the top of the world rankings.
Jannik Sinner is the 29th player to reach World No. 1 in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings.
Ilie Nastase was the first in 1973 and, 51 years later, Sinner has joined the elite group, becoming the first Italian to accomplish the feat.
ATPTour.com is celebrating Sinner’s ascent to No. 1 with a series of profiles of all 29 legends who have climbed to the pinnacle of mens’ tennis.
[ATP APP]Jannik Sinner: The flying fox who climbed to the very top
All smiles: Carlos Alcaraz’s joyful game carried him to No. 1
Daniil Medvedev: No. 1, One of a kind
Andy Murray: The man who ended the Big Three’s No. 1 reign
Novak Djokovic: The complete player
Rafael Nadal: The ultimate competitor
Federer On No. 1: ‘I decided I would like to stay there’
Andy Roddick: The competitive rocket
Juan Carlos Ferrero: The humble mosquito
Lleyton Hewitt: Intense Aussie reached pinnacle at 20
Guga On No. 1: ‘Highlight of my career by far’
Marat Safin: The man of fire
Patrick Rafter: When nice guys finish first
Yevgeny Kafelnikov: The poker-faced workhorse
Carlos Moya: A Spanish pioneer
Marcelo Rios: The first South American No. 1
Thomas Muster: Tragedy to top spot
Andre Agassi: From rebel to philosopher
Pete Sampras: ‘I let my racquet do the talking’
Jim Courier: ‘You have to be extreme to be exceptional’
Boris Becker: From Wunderkind to World No. 1
Stefan Edberg: The No. 1 with grit & grace
Mats Wilander: ‘Every ball comes back’
Ivan Lendl: The monk in the iron mask
John McEnroe: An artist at No. 1
Bjorn Borg: The Ice Man & Elvis, all in one
Connors on No.1: ‘A lonely spot, but it has the best view’
John Newcombe: The man behind the mustache
Ilie Nastase, The first No. 1
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
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Five things the French Open tells us about the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
Jannik Sinner today climbed to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, becoming the first Italian to achieve the feat. It is a historic moment for the 22-year-old, who is just the 29th player since the rankings’ inception in 1973 to climb to World No. 1.
Just more than five years ago, Sinner competed in an ATP Tour event for the first time. Looking back at that one event, the ATP 250 in Budapest, it was clear the Italian had a bright future.
It all began when tournament director Attila Richter received a phone call from the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation and Sinner’s team. They told him about the Italian’s talent and asked if the tournament would consider giving him a wild card.
Organisers had already allocated their three main draw wild cards — one for top seed Marin Cilic and two for Hungarians — so they decided to give the 17-year-old a chance with a qualifying wild card.
“This young guy comes over super polite, super nice, very calm and quiet,” Richter recalled. “Plays incredible tennis, wins in the qualies first round, I’m not even sure who he beat but I remember it was a surprise.”
Read ATPTour.com’s Number Ones Series
Sinner had advanced past Lukas Rosol, known for his 2012 Wimbledon upset of Rafael Nadal. Two weeks after losing in the second round of an ATP Challenger Tour event, the Italian was a win away from successfully qualifying for his maiden tour-level main draw.
Those hopes were squashed when German Yannick Maden defeated him 6-3, 6-4.
“I just remember that I played a somewhat straightforward match, a bit more stable than him, but he was already playing pretty fast and somewhat consistent,” Maden recalled. “But it didn’t bother me that day too much. But it was so close. And I remember also my coach said afterwards that the guy hits the ball really clean.”
[ATP APP]It was apparent to Maden, who reached a career-high No. 96 in the PIF ATP Rankings, that Sinner hit with a high average pace and consistently took the ball early. But it was not just the Italian’s physical tools that caught his attention.
“I remember even after beating him, the next day in the morning, I think I had off and we went off site somewhere to practise,” Maden recalled. “I saw him hitting again. So [a] really good, diligent worker, always a really nice guy, even after he really shot up in the rankings.”
Four players withdrew from the main draw due to injury or illness, so all four players who lost in the final round of qualifying were slotted into the field. Sinner took the place of Dusan Lajovic, who withdrew due to an elbow injury. The teen faced wild card Mate Valkusz, a former junior World No. 1.
“They played a pretty incredible first-round match with balls basically shooting from their racquets like a bullet,” Richter said. “Jannik wins in the end, so he not only gets his first wild card into a Tour event, but also wins his first Tour match in Budapest in 2019.”
The rising star triumphed 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 for his first ATP Tour main draw win. Then World No. 314, he would lose in the second round to World No. 33 Laslo Djere 6-3, 6-2. But his actions off court were even more memorable.
Richter had to leave just before the end of the match for an official meeting in the city. About an hour after departing site, he received a call from the players’ desk asking when he would return.
“I said, ‘Listen, I’ve got no idea’. I had to go to the ministry, I had a couple of other things going on. I said, ‘Maybe one, two hours. Why?’
“There’s a young guy here waiting for you.”
“I’m like, ‘Okay, who is it?’ They said it’s Jannik. ‘Okay, what does he want? Is there an issue?’”
“No, no issue at all.”
“He just wanted to talk to me. I’m like, ‘Okay. I can either talk to him over the phone or if he needs me in person, then I’ll probably be back in an hour’.”
Richter wondered what could be so important that Sinner wanted to meet him in person. Approximately one hour later upon his return to the venue, the tournament director went straight to the players’ desk to ask if the teen was still there.
“Jannik was sitting in the players’ lounge already with all his luggage and everything around him in one of the boxes, so I go up to him and say, ‘Hi, here I am, is there an issue?’ He stands up and says no issue at all. He just wanted to thank me for the wild card,” Richter said. “That sort of already then gave me the impression not only seeing him playing tennis, but also it gives you that feeling that you have with Jannik also today — what a really, really nice, nice guy he is, how good he was raised and his manners. So he actually sat there for an hour and a half, waiting for the tournament director.”
A couple of years after the tournament, Richter was at Roland Garros with his son. They were in the lobby of their hotel when he noticed Sinner sitting by himself. The Italian remembered the tournament director and they enjoyed a quick conversation. “He said for him, it was and still is important to remember where he came from,” Richter recalled.
“I remember then thinking to myself, ‘Well, if he becomes a good player, he’ll be a superstar’, because it’s just the personality that he has,” he added. “I always had that memory and I always told a lot of other players since, mainly juniors and up-and-coming players the story about what a difference it makes if you’re not only a good player in terms of playing tennis but also a good person and always being humble and respectful to where you came from.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]In the latest profile of the 29 players to rise to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, ATPTour.com highlights Italy’s Jannik Sinner. View Full List.
First week at No. 1: 10 June 2024
Total weeks at No. 1: 1
At World No. 1
Sinner will need to settle quickly into his newfound status as World No. 1. Three of the Italian’s closest rivals in the PIF ATP Rankings — Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev — are all former custodians of the top spot in men’s tennis, and Sinner will know he has to push for further success if he wants to keep them at bay for long.
Grand Slam Highlights
After reaching the Roland Garros quarter-finals in his 2020 Paris debut, Sinner showed his staying power with a consistent 2022 Grand Slam season. That year, he reached the quarters at three majors and the fourth round in France. Two heartbreaking defeats — five-setters against eventual champions Djokovic at Wimbledon and Alcaraz at the US Open — steeled the Italian for future success.
He reached the Wimbledon semis in 2023, again losing to Djokovic, and suffered another five-set US Open exit in the fourth round against Alexander Zverev. That disappointment set the stage for a scintillating run to close the ’23 season, which Sinner carried into 2024 to win his maiden major at the Australian Open.
After dominating 10-time Melbourne champion Djokovic in the semis Down Under, the Italian battled back from two sets down against Medvedev for Grand Slam glory. He then backed up his run by reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals, a run during which his ascent to World No. 1 was guaranteed.
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/01/28/14/56/sinner-australian-open-2024-final-press-conference.jpg” style=”width: 100%;” alt=”Jannik Sinner” />
Sinner won his maiden major title at the 2024 Australian Open. Photo Credit: William West/AFP via Getty Images
Nitto ATP Finals Highlights
Sinner made his Nitto ATP Finals debut on home soil in Turin as an alternate in 2021, replacing countryman Matteo Berrettini midway through the group stage and picking up a round-robin win against Hubert Hurkacz.
Returning to Turin in 2023 in some of the best form of his life, Sinner advanced to the final with a perfect record, beating Djokovic in a third-set tie-break in the group stage and scoring a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 result against Medvedev in the semis. While Djokovic won the pair’s rematch in the final, Sinner’s performance that week in front of his home fans boosted his confidence to new heights and set the stage for a dominant start to the 2024 season — a stretch that led him to rise to the top of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time.
ATP Masters 1000 Highlights
Sinner’s first ATP Masters 1000 final came in just his third main-draw appearance at that prestigious level, when he finished runner-up to Hurkacz in Miami in 2021 at the age of 19. After reaching three quarter-finals in 2022 (Miami, Monte-Carlo, Rome), the Italian established himself as a consistent title challenger on the sport’s biggest stages by reaching the final weekend at the first three Masters 1000s of 2023.
A second Miami final run was sandwiched between semi-final showings in Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo, before Sinner’s breakthrough in Toronto later that season. The Italian lost just one set on the way to what was the biggest title of his career, dominating Alex de Minaur in the final.
He made an even stronger start to the Masters 1000 calendar in 2024, putting himself in contention for World No. 1 by winning the Miami title in his third final attempt. He also returned to the semis at both Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo before making the quarters in Madrid.
Biggest Rivalries
In what has the potential to be one of the defining Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalries in tennis history, Sinner and Alcaraz have already squared off nine times in their young careers. Alcaraz currently leads 5-4 following a series of blockbuster clashes. After one meeting on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2019, the then-teenagers began lighting up the ATP Tour from 2021, when Alcaraz prevailed in straight sets in their first tour-level match at the Rolex Paris Masters.
The rivalry has since developed into a ‘must-watch’, with the two players’ desire to play fast-paced, attacking tennis contributing to some of the best displays of shotmaking the game has seen. Their 2022 US Open quarter-final, won by Alcaraz, remains one of the most gripping matches in recent memory. Sinner defeated the Spaniard in the 2022 Umag final and two semi-finals.
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/06/04/11/07/alcaraz-sinner-us-open-2022-rally.jpg” style=”width: 100%;” alt=”Carlos Alcaraz/Jannik Sinner” />
Alcaraz and Sinner in action during their five-set quarter-final epic at the 2022 US Open. Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
After difficult starts to his rivalries with Djokovic and Medvedev, Sinner has caught up rapidly in his respective Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the pair. He has won three of his four past meetings with Djokovic to rally to 3-4 against the Serbian great, while he responded to six opening defeats in his rivalry with Medvedev by winning the next five, including the final of the 2024 Australian Open.
Legacy
Italy is a tennis nation with great history, but Sinner’s early success has lifted the sport to new heights in his home country. He is the first Italian man to reach No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, surpassing Adriano Panatta’s career-high of World No. 4 in 1976. At 22 years old, Sinner owns a record for titles among Italian men with 13.
The feeling was palpable among fans watching his 2023 Nitto ATP Finals run — it was clear they were watching a bona fide homegrown star. Despite defeat to Djokovic in the championship match in Turin, Sinner responded six days later in the Davis Cup semi-finals by saving three match points to notch his second Lexus ATP Head2Head win against the Serbian. The Italian went on to lead his country to its first Davis Cup crown since 1976.
[ATP APP]Memorable Moment
Sinner’s stunning form across the second half of 2023, when he won 27 of his final 31 tour-level matches of the season, raised the possibility of 2024 becoming ‘the year of Sinner’. That has proven true.
Competing at the Australian Open as the No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner did not drop a set en route to the semi-finals, where he soundly defeating record-10-time champion Djokovic in four sets. Even after falling two-sets-to-love down to Medvedev in the championship match in Melbourne, there remained a steely resolve to the 22-year-old’s demeanour. He roared back for a 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory to seal his maiden major trophy and snap Italy’s 38-year wait for a male Grand Slam singles champion.
Alcaraz on Sinner
“Jannik obviously is a really great player with great shots. I would say we’re going to have a great rivalry over the years. We are playing in the best tournaments in the world. It’s not over. We are going to play a lot of great matches.”
Sinner on Sinner
“I always think and believe that you live in moments. [Winning the Australian Open] was a positive and special moment. But then after you have to do it over again. You have to wake up in the morning and work again. And if you lose, you live this negative moment, but you don’t live your career with this. I have maybe a little bit different point of view of how to celebrate these kinds of things.”
Longform tribute: Inside Jannik Sinner’s journey to World No. 1