Jannik Sinner completed his perfect week in Turin by winning his first ATP Finals title with a win over Taylor Fritz.
Although the Italian player came to Turin as the top favorite to win the year-end championship, at the start of the week, probably no one envisioned him doing it so dominantly.
In the round-robin stage of the 2024 ATP Finals, Sinner bested all of his opponents without losing a set, including Taylor Fritz, who was his final opponent. In the semi-final, he completely destroyed Casper Ruud to reach back-to-back finals at the event.
Having beaten Fritz at the event only a few days ago certainly helped the 23-year-old's confidence ahead of the final match, which wasn't only the last match of the official ATP season (Davis Cup is an ITF event), but also the last match of the legendary career of umpire Carlos Bernardes.
When the two finalists met in the round-robin stage, all Sinner needed was to break his opponent's serve once in each set to comfortably win 6-4, 6-4. This time, he managed to copy the script of that match almost exactly.
At the start of the match, it seemed like Fritz could manage to be much more confident on his serve, especially after his impressive win over Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals of the competition.
But in the seventh game Sinner showed why he is the best player in the world, applying pressure on the American's serve and breaking for the first time in the match to lead 4-3.
He then held his serve for the remainder of the set, even though when serving for the set, Sinner faced a break point. He saved it, winning the first set of the match 6-4.
In the second set, he once again caught his opponent off-guard, this time breaking in the fifth game to lead 3-2. Sinner was just unstoppable and there wasn't anything that Fritz could do to stop him.
With the home crowd behind him, Sinner kept winning one game after another to win also the second set, as Carlos Bernardes called his last ever game, set, and match or in this case, gioco, partita e incontro, with Sinner winning 6-4, 6-4.
He won the ATP Finals without losing a single set at the tournament, something that hasn't happened for almost four decades. The last man to ever do it was Ivan Lendl in 1986.
Naturally, Sinner couldn't hide his excitement after the triumph, with the Italian crowd singing his name and applauding him for his victory.
"It’s amazing. It’s just an amazing week for me. It’s the first title in Italy. It means so much to me. I’m very happy about that. It’s something very very special."
"It’s amazing. It’s just an amazing week for me. It’s the first title in Italy. It means so much to me. I’m very happy about that. It’s something very very special."
Sinner will now move to Malaga, Spain, where he will represent his country at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.
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