The observation is staggering and it does not stop there. Because if Sinner is Djokovic’s new runner-up in the technical rankings, in the Race, he has widened an impressive gap in three months. Here he is with a lead of 1350 points over Daniil Medvedev, 2200 points over Carlos Alcaraz and almost 3000 (2990 exactly) over the Serbian legend. While the “Djoker” had gotten into the habit of leaving his mark on the start of the season, the Italian succeeded him in this role and is undoubtedly the strong man of the moment. But is it really a surprise?
The best from the last half-season
“OWe saw it coming, of course, given the end of last season, tells us Justine Henin, luxury consultant for Eurosport. We felt he was capable of playing as he did at home, in front of his audience where he managed to beat Djokovic in this way (in groups at the Turin Masters Editor’s note), by being extremely determined and conquering, without forgetting these victories against Medvedev. We felt this phase of enormous confidence but we still asked ourselves the question of the Grand Slam format which he had stumbled upon several times by losing big fights. And he beat Djokovic again and there is this scenario in the final of the Australian Open: coming back from two sets to zero for his first final when he was in doubt… The way he handled that really impressed me. But I don’t think it was a trigger, more a continuation of everything he put in place.”
The fact is that if we broaden the spectrum, Sinner has only had three defeats since September against Ben Shelton in the eighth in Shanghai, Novak Djokovic in the Masters final and Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells semis out of a total of… 45 matches. To extend the statistical record, the Italian has more than 93% victories and five titles over half a season (not counting his victory in the Davis Cup). What looked like a Sinner-Djokovic duel at the end of 2023 turned into a one-man showdown at the start of 2024. The rhythm is insane, and let’s not be afraid of words, worthy of a world number 1.
“It’s the strongest yetJustine Henin readily agrees. He has shown it since the start of this season by being extremely dominant. The results are the consequence of the tennis he develops, of the confidence accumulated with victories. The ranking is calculated over 52 weeks and this is the consequence. He will become world number 1 if he manages to remain as authoritarian. When you have a start to the season like this, you give yourself a good chance of achieving your goal. But it will go through the work which will bring the result which, itself, will bring the ranking. He certainly has other goals before becoming world number 1.”
How Sinner destroyed Medvedev’s game in an hour
A Djokovic 2.0 only on hard so far
Because what this extremely flattering assessment does not say is that the incontestable domination of Jannik Sinner was exercised on a single surface. The Italian is the boss of the hard court circuit, a sort of Djokovic 2.0, with comparable precision and regularity in restarts and exchanges, and a hint of extra power. But will it also be on other surfaces?
In 2011, after starting his crazy series of victories on hard, Novak Djokovic managed to transpose his domination onto earth (41 consecutive successes in total), even if Roger Federer ended up stopping him in the semi-final at Roland Garros. -Garros. If Sinner wants to become the boss of the circuit at all, he will still have to draw inspiration from his Serbian model.
“He proves to himself that he is capable of doing more and more things. And when you prove things like that to yourself, the confidence is even greater and you enter into a completely new dynamic. It’s a surface on which he has failed to prove the same things to himself. We will have to give him time on this surface. He will be able to play the leading roles, I do not see at the moment any major obstacle in relation to that“, finally considers the four-time Roland-Garros champion.