Tennis World No. 1 Sinner wins ATP Tour ‘King of Kings’ | Dong-A Ilbo

Won 2-0 against world number 5 Fritz in the final.
First Italian player born in the 2000s to win the Finals

Jannik Sinner (Italy), the world number one in men’s tennis, won the championship trophy in the final match of the men’s professional tennis (ATP) season.

Sinner won a complete victory 2-0 (6-4 6-4) against Taylor Fritz (5th place, USA) in the singles final of the Neito ATP Finals held in Turin, Italy on the 18th (Korean time).

The ATP Finals is a king-of-the-match tournament in which the top 8 singles players and the top 8 doubles groups with the best performance of the year participate, and Sinner is the first player in 38 years since Ivan Lendl (Czech Republic) in 1986 to win a set in this tournament. He won without giving up anything.

Sinner is also the first Italian player to win this competition.

Additionally, with Sinner, born in 2001, winning the trophy, the ATP Finals became the first tournament to produce a winner born in the 2000s.

Sinner, who won the ATP Tour 1000 Series 2024 Shanghai Masters held in Shanghai, China last month and confirmed the world’s No. 1 ranking at the end of the year, also rose to the highest position in the final match of the season.

After winning the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the season in January of this year, Sinner continued to reach the top at the 2024 ABN AMRO Open and the Miami Open of the ATP 1000 Series.

He then won the Terrabotman Open, the Cincinnati Open, and the US Open, the last major tournament of the season, standing at the forefront of the generational change in men’s tennis.

Sinner, who won the Neito ATP Finals on this day following the Shanghai Masters, finished 2024 as his best year by winning eight trophies in 2024 alone.

After the game, where he lifted the trophy in front of the cheering home fans, Sinner said, “It is even more meaningful to win the championship for the first time in a competition held in Italy, my home country. “I couldn’t have shown a better performance today,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sinner tested positive for the banned substance clostebol in a doping test taken during the BNP Paribas Open in March.

At the time, Sinner explained, “The physical therapist used a spray purchased by the trainer to treat a wound on the finger, and it contained clostebol,” and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) reflected his position. He was cleared of doping charges.

However, last September, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed Sinner’s acquittal to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and the controversy over his doping returned to its current state.

[서울=뉴시스]