Jannik Sinner secures world number one milestone with latest win

Sinner became the first Italian to reach No. 1 in the rankings in June this year when he replaced tennis great Novak Djokovic with his surge to the top coming on the back of his maiden Grand Slam, which he won at the Australian Open, as well as titles at the Rotterdam Open and Miami Open.

The Italian has been pretty dominant since then as he won a second major title at the US Open and also lifted trophies in Halle, Cincinnati and Shanghai.

The 23-year-old started the season-ending ATP Finals with a 3,015-point lead over Alexander Zverev in the rankings (10,330 v 7,315), but his run to the final means he will remain at No. 1 until the end of January next year, even if he fails to successfully defend his Australian Open crown.

Sinner has already picked up 1,000 points in Turin for making it to the final so will move to 11,330 while Zverev's defeat in the semi-finals means he will be on 7,915 points.

The two-time major champion will thus start the 2025 season with a lead of at least 3,415 points (it will be 3,915 if he wins the ATP Finals).

That will give him a big enough buffer for the Australian Open as he only has the 2,000 points from last year's title run to defend in January with his next title defence in Rotterdam (500 points).

Zverev is defending 1,236 points (335 from the United Cup, 800 from the Australian Open and 100 from Los Cabos) while third-placed Carlos Alcaraz - who will kick off the new season with 7,010 points - and although the Spaniard is defending only 500 points (400 in Australia and 100 in Buenos Aries), the gap is too big to overcome.

Sinner looks set to remain at No. 1 until at least the end of February - another 15 weeks - so is set to move ahead of Alcaraz for most weeks at No. 1 in the rankings.

Alcaraz is currently 16 on the all-time list with 36 weeks while another 15 weeks at No 1 will see Sinner move to 38 weeks and Ilie Nastase will be his next target as the Romanian is on 40 weeks while Andy Murray (41) and Gustavo Kuerten (43) will also be within striking distance.