Tennis superstar Jannik Sinner. © APA / SARAH STIER

Jannik Sinner is set to receive the great accolade in tennis

On Thursday night, the tennis world will be watching Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, who will meet in the dream quarterfinals of the US Open. But one thing is already certain: no matter how it turns out, Sinner is one of the winners in New York - especially in terms of the world rankings.

September 04, 2024

From: det

The world rankings in tennis have been in existence since 1973. Since then, no tennis professional from Italy has ever managed to reach number 1 – until Jannik Sinner came along. The golden boy from Sexten has been on the top spot since June 10th. And it looks like he won't be leaving this spot any time soon.

The probability is increasing that the Pusterer will spend the winter in first place at the end of the year - that is a real accolade for a tennis professional. In the live rankings, Sinner is unchallenged in first place with 1 points, his biggest competitors Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are 9.580 and 1 points behind respectively - that is an enormous gap that is almost impossible to make up in the last three months of the season.

Will Sinner remain number 1 until the end of the year? © APA/afp / ANGELA WEISS

That's why another player has been considered Sinner's hottest hunter in recent days: Alexander Zverev. He is 2.505 points behind the Sextner in the live rankings. Because the Hamburg native was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the US Open, he will not accumulate any more points in the last Grand Slam, while Sinner still has a chance of winning the tournament. If the Sextner superstar actually wins the US Open, he would have more than 11.000 points - which would make him number 1 until the end of the year as good as certain. But even if the South Tyrolean were to be eliminated early, he would still have a comfortable lead with 2.505 points.

Lots of points to defend, but...

It should be said that Sinner has to defend a lot of points in the next three months: In total, he has an impressive 2.180 points (500 for winning the tournament in Beijing, 90 for the round of 500 in Shanghai, 90 for winning the tournament in Vienna, 1.000 for the round of 1.010 in Paris-Bercy, XNUMX for the ATP Finals in Turin). Zverev, on the other hand, has to defend "only" XNUMX points.

Nevertheless, Sinner would have to slide from one debacle to the next to be overtaken by the German. Theoretically, Daniil Medvedev could also enter the battle for number 1, but he would have to win the US Open and then make up almost 3.000 points on Jannik. The South Tyrolean superstar can therefore achieve great things once again.