Jannik Sinner joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray in exclusive list with US Open 2024 title

Jannik Sinner has carved a place in history as the first Italian to win two different majors.

After posting a straight-set semi-final win over southpaw Jack Draper, Jannik Sinner has joined an elite group of players that until now was made up of tennis’ ‘Big 4’. These players whose names spark instant recognition are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray.

Federer reached this threshold in 2005, winning 22 and losing one. Except for Roland Garros, the Swiss came away victorious at the other majors. The 2005 season was tied with 2004 as Federer’s best, as he won 11 titles each across those two seasons. The champ’s tryst with the ATP top 10 got underway midseason in 2002, followed by Federer claiming the No. #1 spot at the conclusion of his victorious 2004 Australian Open campaign.

Nadal emulated Federer in 2008 — a seven-year wait after turning pro. The 2008 season gave the Spaniard his fourth Roland Garros title. It was the year he won the Beijing Olympic gold for singles in tennis. His Grand Slam win-loss record that year was 24-2.

The month of August came bearing gifts when Nadal rose to become No. #1 in the ATP Rankings for the first time, and unsurprisingly it came after the Spaniard took the French Open title. April 2005 was the month Rafael Nadal drove through the gates of the ATP top 10. 

Jannik Sinner joins ELITE company! pic.twitter.com/moEwuy3Caq

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 6, 2024

Djokovic joined Federer and Nadal as the third member in 2011, eight years after turning pro – and it was officially getting crowded.  The Serb finished that year with a 25-1 record in Grand Slams in his most successful season on the tour. The Serb ascended to pole position in the ATP Rankings after his title run at Wimbledon in 2011. The former World No. 1 picked up ten titles that year and went one better in 2015 when he won 11. 

The arrival of Andy Murray changed the ‘Big 3’ into the ‘Big 4.” Murray’s haul of 22 Grand Slam wins came in 2012, the same year he won the US Open for the first time, winning the first of two Olympic golds at the London Games. The World No. #1 position came in 2016, the year he won his second Olympic gold at Rio.

It was a long wait for the top spot, coming as it did nearly a decade since his arrival into the top 10 in 2007. Murray spent the next nine years floating in and out of the ten most elite players in the world.

Sinner has found his way into the club a dozen years after Andy Murray to make it a party of five. As the newest member of the ‘Fab Four,’ he has notched up 22 Grand Slam wins for two losses during his 2024 campaign. Sinner’s five-title haul, including the Australian Open, has made the ongoing season his best, with nearly four months remaining. 

The 23-year-old, Sinner, has been in the ATP top 10 since April 2023 and became No. #1 in June 2024, where he remains for 11 weeks and counting. Winning the title at Flushing Meadows has nudged him ahead of Federer with 23 Grand Slam match wins in a calendar year. The Italian outplayed Taylor Fritz, straight sets to win his second Grand Slam of the year.In doing so, Sinner draws level with Jimmy Connors (1974) and Guillermo Vilas (1977) in the ATP Tour to pick up their first two Grand Slam titles in the same calendar year since the Open Era began.

As an added bonus, the young Italian is on 11,180 points in the ATP rankings, the only player at this stage of the season to have reached the four figure mark. This also makes him only the eighth man in history to have accumulated 10,000+ ATP points in a calendar year. 

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram