Jannik Sinner keeps his unruly mop of ginger curls neatly tucked under a cap. Clean-shaven and poker-faced, he similarly keeps his emotions in check as he goes about his business.
That business is excelling on a tennis court, amassing titles and solidifying his status as the No. 1 player in the world. This year the 23-year-old Italian has done that and more. In 2024 the 6-foot-3 Italian has staked his claim at the top by bookending his year with a second major championship, the US Open. Sinner also won the first major of the year in Australia.
Sinner has greedily stockpiled the most hard-court victories on tour (35), winning a gobsmacking 92% of his matches overall. He has gobbled up six ATP titles—and remains undefeated this year in finals.
The Italian is methodical in both his preparation and his play. On court, he is supremely controlled. After his semifinal win, preparing to play his first US Open final, Sinner said that his mission here has been exceedingly simple: “We went just day by day, really, with not so many expectations.”
But the expectations were plenty.
Beginning with his deepest run at a major in 2023, a semifinal showing at Wimbledon, Sinner has made the steadiest of progressions to the top. From a ranking of No. 4, he moved up to No. 3, then No. 2, and finally he seized the No. 1 ranking in June this year. Sinner has mastered all surfaces and corners of the globe. He won the Australian, dethroning Novak Djokovic; reached the semis at Roland Garros; the quarters at Wimbledon; and now has won his first US Open.
A former champion skier from the German-speaking north of Italy, Sinner’s disposition is more Germanic than stereotypically Italian. After Sinner won the championship Sunday in three fairly suspense-free sets against the home-country favorite, Taylor Fritz, even the Italian’s on-court celebration was understated. Sinner merely lifted his outstretched arms to the sky, as only a subtle hint of satisfaction flashed across his face.
Perhaps it was a sense of relief.
In the stands, embraced by his team, the smile finally brightened and became more relaxed.
Sinner and world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz split the year’s Slam spoils, with the 21-year-old Spaniard claiming the middle two majors at the French Open and Wimbledon. (Novak Djokovic, still hanging around in the Top 5 and refusing to go quietly into retirement, took the game’s other big prize, the gold medal at the Paris Olympics.)
A doping controversy erupted in the days just before the beginning of this year’s Open, after Sinner tested positive for minute traces of the banned anabolic steroid Clostebol, apparently applied inadvertently by a masseur. Sinner lost his very first set in the opening round, looking momentarily—and uncharacteristically—shaky, but he quickly put those concerns behind him in his single-minded pursuit of a second slam.
“This means so much because the last period of my career was not easy,” Sinner said on-court after claiming the title, acknowledging that the news of the allegations, which dated back to Indian Wells in March, had weighed on him.
Sinner and his team came into the Open claiming they didn’t have enormous hopes for the year’s final major in Flushing. Asked how he managed to upend those low expectations, the Italian said matter of factly: “I did pretty well, I guess.”
The 23-year-old plays a clean brand of power-precision tennis. He hits with the regularity of a metronome; sometimes it feels as though Sinner simply cannot miss. He batters the ball but is never boring. His strokes are perfect, with nary a hitch or wasted ounce of effort. Sinner’s relentless game can appear effortless, so reliable are his weapons.
And the youngster almost never appears flustered or dispirited. He is disciplined. Even the ebullient fist pumps of his youth have become muted, replaced by more sober, positive shakes of the racquet.
After his energy-sucking, sweaty and sloppy loss to Sinner in the semifinal, on a brutally humid day, Jack Draper was asked to identify one weakness in the Italian’s game. “He doesn't have many, mate,” said the Brit. “One? Don't know. Maybe he's too nice.”
If that’s the only knock on him, Sinner is in for a long, fruitful career. At the tender age of 23, he’s already at the apex.
