Jannik Sinner widens gap to Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in rankings with Cincinnati title as he creates Italian history

Jannik Sinner’s title run at the Cincinnati Open has helped him to maintain a comfortable cushion over Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the ATP Rankings while he has also notched up a couple of Italian milestones.

The 23-year-old defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in the ATP Masters 1000 title to become the first Italian to win the singles title since the event was started in 1899.

The Cincy trophy was also Sinner’s fifth Masters title while he took his ATP Tour title tally for 2024 to five – also the most won by an Italian in a calendar year.

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The world No 1 now sits on 15 career singles titles as he drew level with Carlos Alcaraz and Lleyton Hewitt for the second-most titles won from their first 19 finals. Rafael Nadal leads that particular statistic as he won 17 of his first 19 finals.

But it was far from an easy week for the Sinner as he struggled with a hip injury for most of the tournament while the weather also caused havoc, resulting in extra time on the site.

“It was a very difficult week, tough week. I’m very happy about today’s match,” he said. “It was very tough mentally. Had such an amazing run here, and I tried to do my best today.

“We both were quite tired from yesterday. We both felt a lot of tension, but I’m very glad about [the] level I played today, especially in the important moments.”

Sinner picked up 990 points with his title to move to 9,760 points at the top of the ATP Rankings, 2,300 points ahead of Djokovic in second place with Alcaraz another 100 points behind in third place.

It puts him in a comfortable position at the US Open as he only has 180 points to defend at the final Grand Slam of the year while Djokovic (7,460) will drop 2,000 points as the defending champion and Alcaraz (7,360) will drop 720.

It means the Italian will have at least a 900-odd point lead after the US Open even if he loses in the first round. The maximum number of points that Djokovic can achieve at Flushing Meadows is 7,460 while Alcaraz will be on 8,640 if he wins the title.

Sinner is assured of staying at No 1 until at least the China Open and he will drop 500 points as the defending champion, but that means Alcaraz would then have to make up points, but he will also drop 180 points as he reached the semi-final last year.