Jannik Sinner was delighted to check off one of his "main goals" for the 2024 season after he became the first player to qualify for the ATP Finals.
The season-ending championships will continue to be held in Sinner's home country of Italy and in the vibrant city of Turin. Only eight of the ATP's best players (singles and doubles) in a season will play at the event.
In 2024, the ATP Finals in Turin will run from November 10th to 17th inside Italy's largest indoor sports arena called the Pala Alpitour (also known by its sponsor name, Inalpi Arena).
It's the fourth year that Turin hosts the ATP's flagship year-end tournament, and there will be an Italian representative because Sinner has qualified for the tournament for the second year in a row.
Sinner was a late alternate during the 2021 ATP Finals, replacing injured compatriot Matteo Berretitni. But after notching an impressive win on debut against Hubert Hurkacz, he was eliminated in the group stage after losing to Daniil Medvedev.
His first proper appearance was last year, which turned out to be a breakthrough season on the main stage. Sinner completed an undefeated round-robin campaign, which included a stunning win over then-World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in front of a cheerful home crowd.
He would defeat Medvedev in the semifinal and meet Djokovic in the championship match. This time, the Serbian turned up the heat and capitalized on Sinner's nerves to even the score and lift a record-breaking seventh ATP Finals crown.
A section of fans opined that Sinner expended so much energy in winning a dead rubber against Holger Rune that it actually kept Djokovic in the competition.
Sinner got his measure of revenge by defeating Djokovic in a crucial Davis Cup semifinal tie between Italy and Serbia just a few weeks later and would help his country win the first title in the team competition in almost half a century.
By advancing to the quarterfinal of the Canadian Open in Montreal with victory over Alejandro Tabilo, Sinner secured the cut-off points for qualification for Turin and is looking forward to "showing good tennis" when he returns to Italy at the end of the regular ATP season.
"I am very happy. It's one of my main goals of the season. I am just looking forward to come back to Italy and hopefully show some good tennis."
Sinner's title defense in Canada suffered a setback because he lost in the quarterfinal stage to Andrey Rublev on Saturday as the tournament ran a crash program to complete a spate of matches that could not be played because of rain on Friday.
He appeared to struggle with a leg problem in his defeat to the Russian. He still leads the ATP Race, which accounts for points earned in the current season.
But if he withdraws from Cincinnati, he could be overtaken by Carlos Alcaraz in first place. Less than 600 points separate the two, as the Spaniard bridged a huge gap to the pacesetter by winning back-to-back Grand Slams.