Jannik Sinner secured the end-of-year ATP number-one ranking by reaching the Shanghai Masters final with a 6-4 7-5 win over Tomas Machac.
Czech Machac was looking to follow on from his victory over world number two Carlos Alcaraz, and had got off to a positive start when he broke Sinner in the opening game of their semi-final.
However, the 23-year-old Italian, winner of both the Australian Open and US Open this year, soon broke back to level at 2-2 before closing out the set.
The second set proved a closer affair, staying on serve until Sinner broke Machac in the 12th game to clinch victory – his 64th match win of the season – in one hour and 45 minutes, becoming the first Italian to claim the year-end number-one spot in the process.
🚨 HISTORY MADE! 🚨
🇮🇹 Jannik Sinner claims ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF, becoming the first Italian to achieve this historic feat! 🏆#PIF | #ATPRankings | #partner pic.twitter.com/1nKno7Gs0v
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 12, 2024
“It is something you dream of when you are a kid, when you are young, just to reach the number one, now having the year-end, it is also a different and special feeling,” Sinner said, quoted on the ATP Tour website.
“It means so much to me, obviously. This is something I could not accomplish without all the people I have around – the family and friends and also a big credit to my team.”
Sinner, chasing a seventh title of 2024, will face Novak Djokovic in the final after the Serbian beat seventh seed Taylor Fritz 6-4 7-6 (6).
Djokovic never looked in danger of seeing his unbeaten record against the American slip, despite appearing to struggle with some fitness issues during the second set, which went to a tie-break.
The dominance continues 🙌@DjokerNole is into a record-extending 59th Masters 1000 final after defeating Fritz#RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/2U2W9ArNOJ
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 12, 2024
The world number four – aiming to become the third man to win his 100th ATP Tour title – did not face a break point as he took the opening set.
Fritz fought back to move 6-5 ahead in the second set, with Djokovic taking a medical timeout for treatment on his left hip.
Djokovic, though, battled through the pain to recover from 6-5 down in the tie-break to level after a long rally and then secured his place in the final after an attempted lob from Fritz dropped out.
“I had some issues here and there on the court physically a little bit yesterday and today, but managed to overcome it,” Djokovic said in his court-side interview.
“Taylor is in form, playing really well, particularly on this surface, so I knew this would be a big test for me.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here