Jannik Sinner becomes youngest player since Andy Murray to win maiden tournament as ATP World No. 1

Jannik Sinner claimed his fourth title of the season and will be the top seed at Wimbledon.

Jannik Sinner has won his first grass court title at the Halle Open in Germany. The recently crowned ATP World No. #1 defeated Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(8), 7-6(2), adding another feather to his cap. The Italian is the first player since Andy Murray in 2016 (ATP Finals) to his debut tournament as the newly crowned ATP No. #1. Sinner is also the first player to achieve the feat on grass since the ATP Rankings were first rolled out in 1973.

ALSO READ: Jannik Sinner becomes third-youngest player to win maiden tournament as ATP World No. 1

Italy’s Sinner opened his Grand Slam account with a win at the Australian Open in January and edged out Novak Djokovic at the top of the ATP Rankings in June.

1 – Jannik Sinner is the first player to win their maiden ATP event as #1 since Andy Murray (ATP Finals 2016), and the first player to achieve the feat on grass since the rankings were first published in 1973. New.#TWO24 | @ATPHalle @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/Y37luVQqPv

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) June 23, 2024

The win over Hurkacaz, his doubles partner at Halle Open 2024, gave Sinner his second ATP 500 title of the season and fourth overall. Hurkacz, the fifth seed and World No. #9 is a former champion at Halle, taking the win in 2022. 

It was far from an easy win as the 22-year-old Sinner laboured hard to get past the early rounds. Amid inspired performances from his opponents in the first three rounds, each went the distance. The straight-set victory in the final of the Halle Open took an hour and 49 minutes, his second shortest match after the semi-final against Zhizhen Zhang (1 hour, 39 minutes).

The latest win places Sinner in the illustrious company of the likes of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras as only one of eight players to have picked up trophies in their first event as World No. #1. At 22 years, ten months, he is the third youngest man to achieve the feat after Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors.

By picking up his first grass-court title, the young Italian will be among the favourites to challenge for the Wimbledon trophy when the grass-court major gets underway in about a week. The current defending champion at SW19 is Carlos Alcaraz.

While Sinner enjoyed a good run in the warm-up event to Wimbledon, Alcaraz finds himself on the back foot after being unable to defend his title at the Queen’s Club.

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