Jannik Sinner returned to winning ways as he created a new one-man club for one milestone while he also joined the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on another list of achievements.
Just days after losing the China Open final against his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner bounced back to beat Taro Daniel 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.
The win was the Italian’s 60th of the season as he became the first player to achieve the milestone this year with Alexander Zverev next best on 57 wins, Alcaraz on 49 and Casper Ruud on 48.
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Sinner – who has a win-loss record of 60–6 (90.9%) for the 2024 season – has now won 60+ matches in consecutive seasons as last year he finished the campaign with a 64–15 win-loss record.
The two-time Grand Slam winner – who turned 23 in August – is only the sixth player aged 23 or under with 60+ ATP match wins in consecutive seasons since 2000.
Interestingly, all six players have topped the rankings with world No 1s Lleyton Hewitt (2000-02), Andy Roddick (2003-04), Roger Federer (2003-04), Rafael Nadal (2007-09) and Novak Djokovic (2007-10) the others to have achieved the feat.
The win was also Sinner’s 250 in top-level tennis as he became the first player born in the 2000s to reach that particular milestone as he now sits on a career win-loss record of 250–80.
“I felt quite comfortable today,” the Italian said. “I feel in good shape also physically, which is very important for me. Of course I will try to improve for tomorrow’s performance, but today I was serving really, really well, especially in important moments, and was moving well.”
The reigning Australian Open and US Open champion will face Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the third round while he could meet 14th seed Ben Shelton – who defeated him in three sets in Shanghai last year – in the fourth round.
If the seedings hold, then Sinner will face Alcaraz in the semi-final as they are in the same half of the draw.
Alcaraz, who reached his 200th top-level win at the China Open, took his career tally to 204–52 with victory a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Juncheng Shang and he takes on Chinese wildcard Wu Yibing next.
“I’ve been playing really good tennis lately so I want to just keep going and keep feeling it, keep feeling this good,” the Spaniard said. “I just had one practice then was straight into this match, so to be able to show this level in the first match, I’m just really proud.”
