Jannik Sinner has just won his third title this season, the second in his career in Beijing after having already triumphed in the Chinese capital in 2023. The world number 2 did not play a perfect tournament and lost two sets during his run, more precisely against Terence Atmane and Alex de Minaur, but he showed once again that he can be dominant on this surface.
The Italian ace lost the ATP ranking lead after more than a year due to his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final early last month, but he still has a chance to return to world No.1 after the Spanish star announced his absence at the Shanghai Masters 1000.
The 22-year-old from Murcia will lose 200 points having reached the quarterfinals in Shanghai last year, while Jannik will try to defend his title. If he manages to achieve this goal and also triumphs at the Vienna ATP 500, the 24-year-old from Sesto Pusteria will return to the top of the ATP rankings with a few tournaments left in the season. Sinner had not participated in the Paris Masters 1000 last year due to illness, while he will be called upon to defend his title at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin in November.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sinner won in Beijing
As he promised after the US Open final, the Italian player is experimenting with new solutions to include in his game and it is also for this reason that he had more difficulties than expected in Beijing.
In particular, the toughest match of his run was the one against de Minaur in the semifinals. Speaking on 'Sky Sports', top analyst Annabel Croft discussed Jannik's approach: There was a lot of experimenting going on with Sinner. We saw the serve volley, the drop shots brought in towards the back end of the match and him trying to force himself to play a little bit differently at times. But for me, the standout was the serve, particularly on second serve when facing break points.
