Jannik Sinner's clay court schedule will be slightly different next year after he was confirmed for a tournament during that period of the season in 2025.
Sinner's incredible breakthrough 2024 season got even better last week at the ATP Finals. He won the prestigious season-ending tournament after easily beating Taylor Fritz in the final in straight sets.
The Italian's other successes throughout the year include winning his maiden Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open and securing three Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Cincinnati, and Shanghai.
Those achievements meant Sinner became the fastest player to guarantee the year-end No. 1 ranking since Novak Djokovic in 2015. Djokovic won three Grand Slams and the ATP Finals during that year.
The only part of the season in which Sinner did not win a title was the clay court swing. Sinner narrowly lost a thrilling Monte-Carlo Masters semifinal 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to eventual champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, who won the tournament for the third time.
His Madrid Open campaign was cut short due to a hip injury. Felix Auger-Aliassime received a walkover into the semifinal after Sinner determined that taking to the court could make his physical problem worse.
Sinner missed the Italian Open with that issue but got himself fit in time for the French Open. That tournament was memorable for the Italian because he overtook Djokovic at No. 1 after the Serbian withdrew before the quarterfinal with a knee injury.
The 23-year-old narrowly missed out on reaching a maiden French Open final after losing a five-set match to Alcaraz, confirming he would end 2024 without a clay court title to his name.
Sinner's reaching two semifinals and a quarterfinal, which he could not play in, was certainly not a bad effort, especially since clay has been his weakest surface since he first emerged on the ATP Tour.
However, Sinner's coach, Darren Cahill, had previously indicated that a change to his schedule was coming after learning more about what works best for the world No. 1 during his breakthrough season.
Cahill stated that the turnaround from the Miami Open on hardcourts to the Monte Carlo Masters on clay was too sharp, not giving Sinner enough time to rest and then practice properly on the dirt.
Although Cahill did not definitively confirm it, his words strongly indicated that Sinner would skip the Monte Carlo Masters, and the news about which tournament he has been confirmed for makes that even more likely.
Sinner will play at the Munich Open. The German tournament, won by home favorite Jan-Lennard Struff last year, was an ATP 250 in previous years, but it will be upgraded to an ATP 500 event for 2025.
Next year's Munich Open is scheduled for the same week as the Barcelona Open, from April 14th to 20th. That means it will take place the week after the Monte Carlo Masters, from April 7th to 13th.
Sinner is almost certain to skip the Monte-Carlo Masters, the only non-mandatory Masters 1000 tournament on the ATP calendar, and begin his 2025 clay court season in Munich.
Still, whether the Italian player competes during that part of the season at all will depend on the ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in his still ongoing doping case.
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