The numbers of the world number one in the final rounds of the tournaments bode well for this Australian Open…
Over a year ago, which in tennis terms could coincide with the Middle Ages, Jannik Sinner was eliminated in the round of 16 of an ATP tournament. It was the Masters 1000 in Shanghai: the blue was still at number 4, coming off the victory in the 500 in Beijing, he was looking for a consecration that had the flavor of a Slam or a triumph at the Turin Finals. Over a year later, in January 2025, Sinner found an industrial quantity of consecrations. And that unfortunate match against Shelton remains the last elimination in the round of 16 of a tournament. While in Melbourne the Italian qualified for the next phase for the fifteenth time in a row.
LIKE THE BIG THREE
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Now, the numbers are undeniably impressive. From October 2023 to today, Sinner has collected a record of 52 victories and zero defeats in the matches preceding the quarter-finals. He never slips on banana peels, even when the heat asphyxiates him and he has to deal with an illness, as in the Melbourne match against the restless talent of Rune. Sinner, with that 15 out of 15 achieved at the Australian Open, has once again put himself in the wake of the greatest. Because only Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have achieved such a result in the history of tennis. The Big Three of yesterday, the ones from which the blue has definitively collected the scepter and legacy. In Melbourne, moreover, he reached the quarter-finals of a Slam for the tenth time in his career: three at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon, two at Roland Garros and at the US Open. The challenge now is to win the third Major of his career.
THE BUDGET
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Returning to October 2023, it is curious to observe the balance of Sinner’s matches from that Chinese elimination to today. In the 15 subsequent tournaments that saw him reach the quarter-finals, Sinner was able to go all the way more than half the time. It happened on 8 occasions, among which the two Slams between Australia and the United States naturally stand out. The ATP Finals won two months ago in Turin are not included in the count, since the formula does not include direct elimination rounds before the semi-final. And in the last 15 fairytale months of the blue (who among other things won the Davis Cup twice, which is also excluded from the count) there is only one final lost: in Beijing, against Alcaraz, last October 2nd. In Melbourne the two are positioned on the opposite side of the scoreboard: Jannik will want to take revenge and write another chapter of history, perhaps.
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