Sensational Sinner heads into 2025 on top of the world

As far as seasons go, you won't find many better than Jannik Sinner's 2024 campaign.

Sinner won eight ATP-level titles, including the Australian Open and the US Open.

He capped off a sensational season with victory at the Davis Cup, as Italy successfully defended their crown.

Sinner also became only the second player in the Open Era to finish a calendar year with at least one set won in each of his matches, after Roger Federer (2005).

Here, we recap Sinner's brilliant year using Opta's treasure trove of data, and look ahead to 2025.

33 - Since the event's change to best-of-three in 2008, Jannik Sinner (33) has now conceded the fewest games en route to the title at the ATP Finals, and the fewest overall since Ivan Lendl (27) in 1985 - excluding walkovers. Punctuation. #NittoATPFinals | @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/rE0TtyUaiW

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) November 17, 2024

Breakout major success

It almost seems strange to think Sinner began 2024 without a grand slam title to his name. That soon changed at the Australian Open, though, as he defeated Daniil Medvedev in a classic, five-set final.

Sinner did things the hard way at Melbourne Park, also overcoming Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals and Novak Djokovic in the last four.

At the age of 22 years and 165 days, he became the youngest player to ever achieve successive wins over ATP top-five opponents in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of a grand slam, surpassing Michael Stich, who did so at the age of 22 years and 262 days at Wimbledon 1991.

That triumph also made him only the third Italian man to win a grand slam, after French Open champions Nicola Pietrangeli (1959 and 1960) and Adriano Panatta (1976).

By beating Djokovic, Sinner became the first Italian to defeat the ATP's top-ranked player at a major, with Italians previously going 0-23 in such matches since the ATP Rankings were first published in 1973.

Sinner would also record a final victory over Djokovic at the Shanghai Masters later in the year, becoming the first player on record to not face a single break point in back-to-back tour-level meetings with the Serbian.

Slam consistency

Of course, Sinner later followed up his Australian Open triumph by clinching the US Open crown, downing home favourite Fritz in the Flushing Meadows final.

Those major wins were two of seven triumphs for Sinner at hard-court events this year, making him just the fifth player to win seven or more finals on the surface in a year, after Andre Agassi (1995), Pete Sampras (1996), Federer (2004-06) and Djokovic (2015).

But perhaps his remarkable consistency across all four grand slams is what stands out most.

Sinner reached at least the quarter-finals at each of 2024's majors, losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open semi-finals and Medvedev in the last eight at Wimbledon.

At 23 years and 17 days, he became the third-youngest man in the Open Era to reach the quarter-finals at all four slams in a single season, after Sampras in 1993 (22 years and 18 days) and Rafael Nadal in 2008 (22 years and 83 days).

Sinner won 23 matches overall at grand slams this year, with no other player on the ATP Tour bringing up 20 (Alcaraz managed 19).

Top of the world

Following his defeat to Djokovic in the showpiece match at the 2023 ATP Finals, Sinner sat fourth in the ATP Rankings 12 months ago.

He had already clinched top spot for 2024 as early as October 15, when he beat Djokovic in straight sets in the Shanghai Open final.

Since changes were made to the distribution of ranking points in 2009, only two players have ever sewn up top spot earlier – Djokovic in 2015 (September 14) and Nadal in 2010 (September 20).

No Italian had previously topped the ATP Rankings, and few could deny Sinner was a deserving recipient of the accolade. His 70 match wins were the most of any player on the ATP Tour in 2024, while his 92.1% win rate is the best by any player since 2015, when Djokovic won 93.2% of his contests.

Sinner did not let the pressure of being number one affect him, either, going 37-3 since first taking top spot. His 92.5% win rate is the best by any male world number one by some distance, dwarfing Bjorn Borg's 80.4%.

With Djokovic turning 38 next year, most would agree Sinner's breakout season has been good for men's tennis, teeing up what could be a long period of dominance by the Italian and his rival Alcaraz.

And his star is surely only going to continue to rise in 2025?

He heads to Melbourne as the defending champion, and should he win his opening match, it will be his 16th win at the Australian Open. Since the turn of the century, only Yevgeny Kafelnikov (17) will have claimed more wins from their opening 20 matches at the event.

A victory in that match would also bring up Sinner's 15th straight grand slam match win on hard court - he would become the fourth player in the 21s century to reel off that many successive wins on the surface, after Agassi, Federer and Djokovic.

Among the seeds in the 2025 Australian Open, Sinner (78.9%) only trails Djokovic (91.3%) for winning percentage at the event.