Jannik Sinner equals 47-year record with US Open 2024 title

Jannik Sinner is currently at the top of the ATP rankings with 11,180 points.

Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner has equalled Argentine icon Guillermo Vilas’ five-decade-old record by winning his first two Grand Slam titles in the same year.

In 1977, former Argentine tennis star Guillermo Vilas won his first Grand Slam title, the French Open by defeating Brian Gottfried 6–0, 6–3, 6–0. Later in the year, he went on to win his second career Grand Slam title by defeating Jimmy Connors in the final of the US Open 2–6, 6–3, 7–6 (7–4), 6–0.

Since then, no other player has managed to win their first two tennis majors in the same year. However, after 47 long years, current ATP World No. #1 Sinner has managed to repeat the rare feat. In January, he defeated Daniil Medvedev, with a memorable comeback after losing the two initial sets, to lift the Australian Open title.

Meanwhile, on September 8, he defeated Taylor Fritz to win the US Open 2024, his second Grand Slam title. Additionally, Sinner has also become the second youngest tennis player in the Open Era to win the Australian Open and the US Open in the same year.

Aged 23 years and 23 days, he also became the first Italian man to win the Australian Open and the US Open in tennis history. He left behind the likes of Swiss maestro Roger Federer, who completed the feat in 2004 when he was 23 years and 35 days and Novak Djokovic, who was 24 years and 113 days old in 2011.

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Jimmy Connors is the youngest tennis male player to do so. He was 22 years and six days old when he won the US Open for the first time. Conners won eight Grand Slam titles in his professional career. Out of the eight, he won three in 1974.

Interestingly, in 1974, the American tennis icon won all three majors in grass. From 1905 to 1987, the Australian Open was played on grass. Meanwhile, the US Open switched from the green surface to hard courts in 1974. Thus, in a different scenario, Jannik Sinner is the youngest player to win the two tournaments in the same year on hardcourt.

This year, Carlos Alcaraz won two Grand Slam championships while Sinner captured the two remaining Majors. This is the first year since 2002 that one of the ‘Big Four’ — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, or Andy Murray — has not won a Grand Slam title.

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