Jannik Sinner most dominant ATP Finals winner in 38 years

Sinner’s utter domination of his five opponents in the year-ending tournament shouldn’t surprise anyone. The 23-year-old has been nearly invincible through most of 2024. With his victory over Taylor Fritz on Sunday, he improved to an incredible 70-6 for the year, which includes a 17-5 record against top 10-ranked opponents. Sinner went 50-3 on hard courts, with his only three losses coming against Carlos Alcaraz (Indian Wells, Beijing) and Andrey Rublev (Canada). 

Speaking of hard courts, Sinner’s clean sweep of the two surface majors — the Australian Open and U.S. Open — to go with the ATP Finals title meant he joined Federer and Djokovic as the third to achieve the trifecta in a season. At 23, he’s the youngest to do it.

While many predicted Sinner’s rise by the end of the 2023 season — when he reached the ATP Finals and captured several ATP 500 titles —nobody saw this coming. To put things in perspective, he entered 2024 as World No. 4 with a 22-27 career record against top-10 opponents. He ended the year by winning 10 of his last 11 matches against top-10 opponents. That’s a remarkable turnaround. He also became the first since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to capture his first two career majors in the same season, the first Italian to win a slam since 1976 and the first to end the year as World No. 1. 

Sinner enters the 2025 Australian Open as the overwhelming favorite to repeat as champion and capture his third major. The scary aspect is the 23-year-old feels he’s just scorching the surface of his prime.

“I actually believe there is still a gap of improvement,” Sinner said after Sunday’s win, via ATP. “There are still certain shots and points that I can do better, but [these] are small details. The higher you play level-wise, the more details make the difference. I’m always trying to improve as a player and trying to understand what I can do better.”

The Italian added that he did not enter 2024 with lofty goals and only wanted to “learn” more about his game and his opponents. He plans to maintain the same mindset in 2025.

“I [will approach it] in the same way I did this year: Keeping calm, having my connection with my team. Taking it seriously, but also relaxed. You need to have a good balance,” he added.