At 23 years of age, Jannik Sinner He will close 2024 as king of the new era of world tennis. His first place in the ranking, which he reached last June, is no longer at risk this season.
Italian is considered, next to Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, another of the nascent wonders of this sport.
Beyond the legal problems he faces, Sinner demonstrates a strong mentality on the playing fields.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced at the end of September that it presented an appeal in the case of the tennis player, acquitted by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after having been tested positive for clostebol twice last March. The AMA asks for “one to two years of suspension.”
Amid the support of other colleagues, including Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Jannik continued to impose talent to achieve great results this year.
However, other athletes such as Denis Shapovalov, Nick Kyrgios, Lucas Pouille criticized that the court was biased and protected the Italian due to his fame and high ranking.
In August, tennis authorities accepted Sinner’s explanations that he suffered accidental contamination through a spray used by his physiotherapist to treat a cut on his finger and that it contained a banned anabolic. A reason, however, that did not convince WADA, which decided to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Sinner, 23, admitted that since March he has had many sleepless nights, although that did not stop him from winning the last US Open. “It’s impressive how he is playing, his level of tennis throughout this whole process,” said Djokovic, who in January lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open against Jannik himself, ultimately champion and achieving his first Grand Slam.
With his victory in September at the United States Open, the Italian finished sharing the four Grand Slam trophies of the year with the Spanish Alcaraz (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), the two undisputed leaders of the new generation of tennis.
For the first time since 2002, no major title ended up in the hands of the so-called ‘Big 3’ made up of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who dominated racket sport with an iron fist in this century. Roger has already retired and Rafa will do so next month.
“It’s something new, but it’s also nice to see,” Sinner said. “I think it’s good for the sport to have new champions.”
Since Argentine Guillermo Vilas in 1977, no player has won his first two Grand Slam titles in the same campaign.
The Italian still has Alcaraz ahead of him in that race, who at 21 years old already has four ‘Majors’ in his showcase, in a more brilliant start than those of the ‘Big 3’.
Djokovic It didn’t debut until the 2011 US Open, when he was 24 years old. Nadal was 22 when he won his fourth Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2008, while Federer was 23 when he reached that milestone at the 2004 US Open.
Sinner and Alcaraz, good friends off the court, have left the previous generation far behind, that of the German Alexander Zverev or the Greek Stefanos Tsisipas, surrendered one step away from the trophy.
Only the Russian Daniil Medvedev, 28, also has a Grand Slam (2021 US Open) before reaching thirty.
No matter how brilliant their careers are, Alcaraz and Sinner have a huge road ahead of them to reach the summits of the ‘Big 3’.
Djokovic, 37, owns 24 Grand Slam crowns, more than any male tennis player. With one more she would equal Margaret Court’s absolute record.
The now retired Roger Federer was 36 years and five months old when he won his twentieth and last Grand Slam at the 2018 Australian Open. Nadal, 38, holds 22 crowns.
In the midst of these feats of those historic tennis players, Sinner makes his way to begin leaving his legacy. Last Sunday he beat Djokovic 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the Shanghai Masters final, and thus achieved his 65th victory of the season with only six defeats, improving his 2023 performance.
This year, in addition to his Grand Slam victories at the Australian Open and the US Open, Shanghai became his third Masters 1000, after Miami and Cincinatti.
At 1.91 meters tall, Sinner is already looking from the top in a sport in which he hopes to continue adding more great achievements.
