Jannik Sinner overcomes 'toughest challenge' to win Shanghai title

October 13, 2024

ATP Tennis Players, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments

Jannik Sinner overcomes ‘toughest challenge’ to win Shanghai Masters

Jannik Sinner has claimed his seventh title of the season after beating Novak Djokovic to win the Shanghai Masters for the first time.

Sinner beat Djokovic, 7-6(3) 6-3, in a match that was watched on by Carlos Alcaraz and Roger Federer to prevent the Serbian from claiming a historic 100th career title.

This was the Italian’s second victory over Djokovic in 2024, but despite this Sinner was full of praise for the challenge that his opponent presents.

“It was a very tough match playing against Novak. It’s one of the toughest challenges we have,” said Sinner. “I’m obviously very, very happy with my situation. He was serving great in the first set. I really couldn’t find a way to break him, and then I played a very good breaker in the first set, which gave me the confidence to start off well in the second.

“Obviously very happy with my performance throughout this whole tournament. It’s a very special one.”

The World No.1 added, “It’s tough to tell you a secret because he doesn’t have any weaknesses. You have to try to use this really small amount of chances he gives you, but there are not so many throughout the whole match. Just try to believe in every moment, and that’s it. He’s a legend of our sport.”

Icons across generations united 😍

Ferrero, Federer and Alcaraz sitting together in Shanghai#RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/l9tFUEPYIU

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 13, 2024

Sinner has recently employed two of Djokovic’s former team members in physiotherapist Ulises Badio and fitness trainer Marco Panichi.

This was something that both players acknowledged and joked about in the post-match trophy ceremony.

“Obviously congratulations to Jannik,” said Djokovic. “He was just too good today, too strong, too fast. Well done, you’re having an incredible year, you deserve this.

“Congrats to Jannik’s team as well, well done guys, great week. I know a couple of guys there, familiar faces, well done well done, you know it’s a great time, I’m really glad you guys are doing well, you deserve this.”

Sinner responded by pointing out that he also had previously worked with Djokovic’s current physio Claudio Zimaglia, “I also know one of your team members very well, Claudio, so we are exchanging a little bit our team members.”

As a result of Sinner’s success in Shanghai this week, the 23-year-old has confirmed that he will end the year as World No.1 for the first time.

Both players will now head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the ‘Six Kings Slam’ exhibition taking place next week.

Inside the baseline…

Jannik Sinner’s incredible 2024 season on the court just does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. Despite what you think about his current doping appeal situation, it is undeniably very impressive how Sinner seems to manage to block all of this out and get the job done on court. This match ended up being a fairly comfortable straight sets win for Sinner, but things could have turned out very differently given that it was 4-5 0-30 to Djokovic in that opening set.

Jannik Sinner and his run to the Shanghai Masters title

The Shanghai title is Sinner’s third Masters 1000 victory of the year, as he becomes the first player to achieve this feat since Rafael Nadal in 2018.

And here is how he did it:

First Round – Received a bye as the top seed

Second Round – Beat Taro Daniel, 6-1 6-4

Third Round – Beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (31), 6(3)-7 6-4 6-2

Fourth Round – Beat Ben Shelton (14), 6-4 7-6(1)

Quarter-final – Beat Daniil Medvedev (5), 6-1 6-4

Semi-final – Beat Tomas Machac (30), 6-4 7-5

Final – Beat Novak Djokovic (4), 7-6(4) 6-3