Jannik Sinner's season keeps getting better and better, as he is now confirmed to be the top seed of the upcoming Madrid Open.
The entry list for the second clay-court Masters 1000 tournament of the season was released a few weeks ago. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic initially led the 96-man field.
But on Saturday, Djokovic withdrew ahead of schedule for undisclosed reasons. Sinner, who was the second seed from the initial sign-up, has now been instilled as the top seed.
Although the Italian has previously been seeded at No. 1 in tour-level tournaments, none of those has been in the Masters category. This is considered the second-highest level of competition and status after the four Grand Slams.
Therefore, Sinner will be the top seed at a Masters tournament for the first time in his career. Although this has come in fortuitous circumstances, it is fully merited. Only recently, the 22-year-old became World No. 2, replacing Carlos Alcaraz after bagging his second career Masters in Miami.
Sinner has already achieved the highest peak of an Italian tennis player, male or female, by occupying the top three of the ATP rankings. He had the best start to the 2024 season of any player, winning 16 straight matches.
It was a run that brought him his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open (where he defeated Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev in back-to-back rounds to win the title) and the Rotterdam 500 event.
Sinner's undefeated streak ended in Indian Wells, where he lost to rival Alcaraz in an entertaining semifinal. Last week, he kicked off his clay-court season with a semifinal run at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
He led eventual champion Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-2 in the final set, but he suffered cramps and succumbed to his second defeat of the season. He is expected to recover in time to lead the lineup at the Madrid Open, which begins on April 24.
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