Everyone was impressed with Jannik Sinner's level in 2024. The world number 1 has been impressive throughout the season, deservedly finishing at the top of the ATP rankings with a very wide gap over all his opponents.
Jannik's consistency has made all the difference this year, with some truly incredible peaks at the Australian Open and at the US Open. The 23-year-old from Sesto Pusteria also won the Masters 1000 in Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai, showing that he is almost unbeatable on the hard courts.
The 2-time Grand Slam champion also won his first title on grass, triumphing in Halle before losing to Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Championships. Sinner has suffered only six defeats in the whole of 2024, three of which were inflicted on him by his great rival Carlos Alcaraz.
The young Spanish champion is the only one able to keep up with Jannik's pace from the baseline, but he does not have the same consistency as his rival for 12 months. The 21-year-old from Murcia has had several ups and downs over the course of the season, which is why he has slipped to world number 3 behind German ace Sascha Zverev.
Sinner's next goal is to win the ATP Finals for the first time in front of his fans, after he came very close to achieving this feat last year, losing only to Novak Djokovic in the final. The Italian ace has made other improvements in the last twelve months and is an almost perfect player now. The 23-year-old from Sesto Pusteria has also worked a lot on volleys and is much more skilled near the net than a few years ago.
Krajicekpays tribute to Sinner
In an interview with SuperTennis TV, former ATP ace Richard Krajicek revealed that Sinner has no weaknesses: Beating Sinner today is more difficult than beating Sampras when I was playing. Sampras was an incredible player but I knew that if I could attack him on the backhand I would have a chance to beat him.
Everyone can do everything and moves very well. I look at them and think: if I played now, how could I beat them? Today Sinner has no weaknesses.
He added: They all manage themselves differently. Players have longer careers, have better teams, and in general are much more complete.
When I played, even the best had weaknesses: the backhand for Sampras, the serve maybe for Andre Agassi. I went on court and had the feeling that I could beat anyone, even Sampras who I defeated six times. Lets say Im happy to have played in the 90s.
Jannik will face Medvedev
The world number 1 will face Daniil Medvedev on the last day of the group stage. The rivalry with the Russian ace exemplifies the progresses Jannik has made over the past year.Daniil had totally dominated the beginning of their rivalry, while he has not found any solutions to defeat Sinner starting from the second half of 2023. The Italian ace has won seven of his last eight clashes with the Russian, including the final of the 2024 Australian Open.
The 23-year-old from Sesto Pusteria will play against Medvedev without making calculations. He has been one of my key points in evolving myself as a player, because I struggled a lot to beat him," Sinner stated in Turin. "Now, every match is quite open, you never know whats going to happen. He's a very tough opponent."
The Russian, on the other hand, played a disastrous match against Fritz on his debut, before putting in one of the best performances of his season against de Minaur.
The 2021 US Open champion knows he will need a feat to defeat the local idol: You need to play an inch-perfect match to beat Jannik. From start to finish, you need to be there, you need to make him tired physically and work him out. If you are not able to do it from the start, he gets control of the match and its tough to break his rhythm. Very, very tough opponent, especially here in Italy."
The former world No. 1 believes that the balls used by ATP right now favor players like Sinner and Alcaraz, who are able to generate a lot of power from the baseline. Medvedev has used this argument several times to justify his negative results in 2024. The Russian ace has not won a single ATP title this season, losing very often to the two young leaders of the men's tour. Daniil hasn't been the only player who has complained about the balls in recent months.
