Jannik Sinner will extend his reign as the World No. 1 player on the ATP Tour by quite a few weeks after reaching the final of the 2024 Cincinnati Open.
The Italian's North American hard-court swing didn't start ideally, quite the opposite. He traveled to Montreal for the Canadian Open as the defending champion, but surprisingly, he was stunned by Andrey Rublev quite early.
That meant that Sinner lost a huge chunk of his points earned at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament, as he lost in the quarter-final, earning 200 points, after winning the title last year, which earned him 1,000 points.
However, he flipped the script at the 2024 Cincinnati Open. After losing in the second round last year, the 23-year-old reached the final this year, in which he will take on Frances Tiafoe, ensuring him at least 650 points.
To get there, he had to overcome Alexander Zverev, winning 7-6(9), 5-7, 7-6(4) in a match that lasted over three hours and was stopped by rain. It was a taxing match for the World No. 1, and he reflected on it after the victory.
"[It was] a tough match, an exciting match. [The] atmosphere has been amazing throughout the whole match. Many, many different conditions. We started off with [it] sunny, then after came the rain."
"Now [it] was night session, so we had a lot of tension for both of us. I'm very happy about this performance, and obviously very happy to be in the final."
Still, the most important thing for him was the fact that was able to reach the final match, getting a chance to fight for 350 more ATP points to round his total for his stay in Cincinnati to 1,000.
"Sometimes you have to play a bit with the gut feeling. And I think this today was, my strength. [There were] some up and downs, which can happen, especially when you play [for] more than three hours. It was a good match, I think for both of us. He served very, very well, so I can be very proud."
Thanks to his run in Cincinnati, but also Carlos Alcaraz's surprising early loss to Gael Monfils and Novak Djokovic's absence from the first two legs of the North American hard court swing, Sinner is ensured to stay the World No. 1 player until October.
This is also because of his last year's disappointing run at the US Open, when he lost already in the fourth round, while Alcaraz made it to the semi-finals and Djokovic won the title.
That means that both of his rivals have many more points to defend. As a result, ahead of the Cincinnati Open final, Sinner is ensured to have 9,230 points after the US Open, which he can increase to 9,580 with win in Cincinnati.
Behind him, it's surprisingly Alexander Zverev who is in the pole position to be second, with 6,675 points ensured after the major at Flushing Meadows, followed by Alcaraz with 6,640 points, and Djokovic with 5,460 points.
This shows that the Italian player has a nearly 3,000 point cushion to his closest rivals while the win at the US Open gives only 2,000 points. However, his busy season will start after that, as already from September 26th to October 2nd, he will be defending his title at the 2024 China Open, and it will be after that event that he could possibly lose his top spot, with the Shanghai Masters, running from October 2nd to 13th, providing his rivals with a perfect opportunity to attack his top rank.