Jannik Sinner backed up his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open with trophies in Rotterdam and Miami this season, and he is now through to the Roland Garros semifinals for the first time. With the injured Novak Djokovic pulling of the clay-court major ahead of his quarterfinal match, Sinner is now guaranteed to rise above the Serbian for the world No. 1 ranking following the tournament.
"What can I say? First of all it is every player's dream to become No. 1 in the world," the 22-year-old said Tuesday after beating Grigor Dimitrov. "In the other way, seeing Novak retiring here I think is disappointing. I wish him a speedy recovery."
Sinner will become the first Italian man to reach the No. 1 spot, and just the 29th player to rise to the summit in the history of the ATP rankings (since 1973).
"I am very happy about this achievement," he said. "It's a lot of work we put in daily. It's a daily routine. Obviously happy to have this number. In two days there is a very important match for me, the semifinals, so I'm focused about that at the moment. But, yes, of course, very happy to have this number now."
That semifinal will be played on Friday against either Carlos Alcaraz or Stefanos Tsitsipas, with Sinner bidding to reach his second Grand Slam final. Prior to his Aussie Open trophy run, the Italian's best major result was a Wimbledon semifinal showing in 2023. He has reached the quarterfinals at least once at each Grand Slam.
The US Open is the only major at which Sinner has not progressed to the final four. After first-round defeats in 2019 (his Grand Slam debut) and 2020, Sinner has reached at least the fourth round each of the past three years in New York.
His two most famous New York matches were both late-night defeats after five sets in Arthur Ashe Stadium. In 2022, he missed out on a match point in a record-late 2:50 a.m. finish against eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. Last year, it was Alexander Zverev who was still standing at 1:39 a.m. As painful as those losses were, they ultimately served to steel Sinner.
"There have been some matches, like the match against Carlos at the US Open, for example, when I had match point. And then also last year against Sascha at the US Open," he said earlier this season at Indian Wells. "When you have these close battles... when you feel that you play a lot of moments of the match, these are really important for the future.
"Even if it hurts, I just try to understand what happened. Couldn't sleep during the night because you're still thinking about the match. It's all about the process you can understand and trying to work harder the next day."
If Sinner can go all the way at Roland Garros, he will move 2,365 ranking points ahead of Djokovic to take a stranglehold on the No. 1 spot. A semifinal exit would leave him 1,165 points ahead of the Serbian, though Alcaraz could move within 1,000 points of Sinner if he goes through Sinner to win the Paris crown.
A Grand Slam title is worth 2,000 ATP ranking points, while a runner-up finish yields 1,300 and a semifinal showing earns 800.
