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Late on Sunday night, November 16, Italy’s Jannik Sinner outclassed arch-rival and World No. 1 ranked Carlos Alcaraz to defend his ATP Finals title in Turin. Coming into the finale after a season of highs as well as some unexpected turbulence, Sinner capped off with a win over the Spaniard 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 at the Inalpi Arena.
The Italian went on to put up a show as he lifted his second consecutive ATP Finals title without dropping a set. With a win, he now remains unbeaten in 31 straight games on indoor hard court. Moreover, the win marks Sinner’s second in six finals against Alcaraz this season and their head to head record now stands 10-6 in favour of the Spanish international.
Elaborating the match between the two upcoming talents in world tennis,
Sinner started from the very first minute, bringing in fierce pace and accuracy to the game. While his biggest test came at 5-6 in the first set when he erased a set point with a serve. The two-hour, 15 minutes game saw the Italian come out victorious and joined the likes of John McEnroe and Boris Becker as the only men to lift the Nitto ATP Finals trophies on home soil.
Carlos Alcaraz finishes year with No. 1 ranking despite ATP Finals defeat
However, the ATP Finals trophy might have gone Jannik Sinner’s way, the Spaniard continued his dominance, finishing the year as World No. 1. While the Spaniard achieved the No. 1 ranking after beating Lorenzo Musetti, with it, he marked the second time in his career to end the year as World No. 1, having done so first in 2022.
Alcaraz has now become just the 10th player to have a minimum of six Grand Slam titles and multiple end of year World No.1 tags in history after Jimmy Connors (8-5), Bjorn Borg (11-2), John McEnroe (7-4), Ivan Lendl (8-4), Stefan Edberg (6-2), Pete Sampras (14-6), Roger Federer (20-5), Rafael Nadal (22-5) and Novak Djokovic (24-8).
In his post-match speech, the Italian also addressed the current World No. 1, "You are definitely a player I look up to, a lot of motivation. I hope to see you again next year with great battles ahead of us."
