Jannik Sinner added another major title to his collection by beating Novak Djokovic in the 2024 Shanghai Masters final. With this new triumph, the Italian is now closer to the biggest names in men’s tennis history, Roger Federer and the Serbian himself.
Sinner’s five major titles (2 Grand Slams and 3 Masters 1000) match the performance of the Swiss in 2004 and the Serbian in 2011, 2012, and 2023. He is now the third player with the most major titles won on hard courts in a single season (since 1990), behind Federer (2006) and Djokovic (2015), with 7 each.
However, Sinner can still match them this very season. If he clinches the Paris Masters 1000, the last of the season, and the ATP Finals he could equal the feats of these legendary athletes.
During the 2024 season, Sinner has won the Australian Open and US Open, as well as the Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai. He also has 2 ATP 500 (Rotterdam and Halle).
Thanks to all these achievements, he has propelled himself to become World No. 1 at only 23 years old. However, his season has not been without controversy, due to his doping case.
Sinner’s former physio breaks his silence
Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency as he convinced an independent tribunal that the trace amounts of the steroid clostebol found in two positive tests (measuring less than a billionth of a gram) were caused by accidental contamination from a massage cream.
The Italian is still at risk of being banned from tennis after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided to appeal the decision last month, and they’re seeking a two-year ban from the sport. Sinner has said that he is very ‘disappointed’ with the decision.
Meanwhile, his former physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi, whom Sinner let go after the incident amid the US Open, has broken his silence in the case. “I’m sorry like everyone else, but I can’t say anything else because unfortunately it’s not over yet,” he told Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“I hope, sooner or later, to be able to tell what happened too to give a general picture. Because from how this affair has been interpreted by the general public it seems that it was just my fault. But that’s not the case, as anyone who has read the ruling knows. I realize that not everyone has made this effort,” he explained.