Jannik Sinner remains the man to beat in 2024. Three weeks after winning a maiden grand slam crown at the Australian Open, the 22-year-old defeated Australia’s Alex De Minaur in straight sets to win the first ATP 500 title of the year in Rotterdam.
Now unbeaten in 15 matches, a run that stretches back to last November, when he spearheaded Italy’s first Davis Cup triumph in almost half a century, Sinner will rise to No 3 in the world on Monday, becoming the highest-ranked Italian player in history. He also becomes the first man to follow up his maiden grand slam victory with a title win since 2001, when Lleyton Hewitt won the US Open and Tokyo back-to-back.
De Minaur’s buoyant run to the final included wins over Grigor Dimitrov, another of the season’s most in-form players, and Andrey Rublev, the second seed. The 25-year-old gave another fine account of himself against Sinner, recovering from a break down in both sets, but was unable to claim a first victory in seven meetings with the Italian, who calmly held on for a 7-5, 6-4 win.
“My team, we have done a really good job some weeks ago,” said Sinner, alluding to his triumph in Melbourne. “Now we made a very, very good job here. I’m really proud about the level I played throughout this whole week.
“We have been in a tough situation, but I guess we handled it the right way. We will always try to improve.”
That process of improvement has been evident for many months now, starting last summer at Wimbledon, where Sinner reached the first grand slam semi-final of his career, continuing with title wins in Toronto, Beijing and Vienna, and culminating with last month’s victory at Melbourne Park. In contrast with Carlos Alcaraz, his story has been one of incremental progress rather than stratospheric success. But on a weekend when Alcaraz was beaten in the Argentina Open semi-finals by Chile’s Nicolás Jarry, Sinner’s latest success was a reminder of the merits of a slow and steady approach.
His latest milestone did not go unnoticed back home.
“Congratulations, champion,” Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, wrote on social media. “Thanks for the emotions you are giving to Italy.”
Yet those emotions were doubtless in turmoil when the irrepressible De Minaur dramatically denied Sinner four set points as the top seed served for the opener at 5-4. A netted drop shot had cost De Minaur his serve in the fifth game, but the Australian’s tireless running and dexterity at the net left Sinner with scant wriggle room, and when he broke back by punctuating a 34-shot rally with a thumping forehand down the line that left the flailing Sinner flat on his back, it was still anyone’s match.
It did not take long for Sinner to alter that. In the next game, a brilliant crosscourt pass denied De Minaur a game point. That ought to have been warning enough for De Minaur, but when Sinner subsequently fired another pass on break point, the Australian ill-advisedly left it, only to see the ball drop just inside the baseline. Minutes later, Sinner sealed the set with his fourth and final ace.
The second set followed a similar pattern, De Minaur retrieving an early break only to fall behind again in the very next game after netting a backhand. Sinner would not be caught a second time.
“I asked him jokingly if he’s going to lose a match this year,” said De Minaur, who will rise to a career-high ranking of ninth on Monday. “He’s playing an incredible level and just too good.”
If Sinner can maintain his current trajectory, De Minaur will not be the last player this season to express such sentiments.