Jannik Sinner has seen an incredible rise over the past year, skyrocketing to new highs. The Italian brings out his best against the top players, collecting 13 wins against opponents ranked in the top 5 as of the end of January 2024. With this, he almost equalled Stefanos Tsitsipas’ overall career tally of 14 wins against top 5 players in just one year. Fans trolled the Greek on X (formerly Twitter) after an account shared this stat.
Sinner well and truly announced his arrival as a serious challenger in 2023, rising to World No.4 on the back of some great results. He won his first ATP 1000 title, reached the ATP Finals, and brought the Davis Cup to Italy. He took the next big step in 2024, embarking on a glorious run to lift the 2024 Australian Open, his first Grand Slam.
Faced with a tough draw in Melbourne, Sinner defeated three top 5-ranked players on the trot in the last three matches of the tournament. He beat World No.5 Andrey Rublev and World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, respectively. He got the best of World No.3 Daniil Medvedev in the final to lift the trophy.
That run meant Jannik Sinner had 13 wins over players in the top 5 in the last year. Stefanos Tsitsipas, meanwhile, has only 14 victories against such opponents throughout his entire career. A Sinner fan page on X shared this statistic, leading to fans joking at the two-time Grand Slam finalist’s expense. One fan said he will never win a Majors title, while another mocked him saying he could build a future as a YouTuber.
Tsitsipas is a joke… I doubt he’ll ever win a slam
— theo0110 (@theo011037) February 5, 2024
Stef’s tennis is declining. I think he has a future in Youtube videos though. Very cute and romantic.
— Dino C (@bubblingwhale) February 4, 2024
How did tsitsipas bottle that 2 set lead in the French open is still beyond me that too at his best surface
— aniballer (@aniballerz) February 5, 2024
I cant believe tsitsi once was our nemesis
— Loving Jannik Sinner (@sinfoerubelix) February 4, 2024
Some users also praised Sinner for his feat.
The kid’s gonna form the next Big 3, with Alcaraz & Rune.
— Keshab Mansukhani (@KKM154385289499) February 5, 2024
Sinner has arrived.
— Veronica (@not_markle) February 5, 2024
Greatest in the making
— Dr. Romnis (@roseroms2110) February 4, 2024
Tsitsipas was expected to be among the next batch of Grand Slam champions after the Big 3. However, he has failed to get his hands on the big prize despite having won other major tournaments. The young duo of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have overtaken him, having already secured Grand Slam titles.
Every Jannik Sinner top 5 win in the last 12 months
Ironically, Sinner’s first top 5 victim last year was Tsitsipas. The Greek, then ranked No.3, fell to a straight sets loss in the Rotterdam Open second round. The Italian, then ranked World No.14, eventually finished runner-up. From here, it was only upward for him. He soon followed it up with a win over then-World No.5 Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals of the Indian Well Masters.
Jannik Sinner then collected two wins against Carlos Alcaraz on the trot, in the semifinals of the Miami Open and the China Open. He beat World No.3 Daniil Medvedev in the final of the latter tournament. Andrey Rublev, World No.5, was next for Sinner, who had now reached a career-best World No.4, in the Vienna Open. After defeating the Russian in the semi-final, he again faced Medvedev in the final and triumphed.
In the 2023 ATP Finals, he beat World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the group stage and yet again defeated Medvedev in the semi-finals. He again met Djokovic within a couple of weeks in the Davis Cup Finals semi-final. He came out on top against the Serb for the second time in two weeks.
Closing 2023 with 10 victories against players in the top 5, he added the aforementioned three wins to the list during his 2024 Australian Open run.
