Earlier this 12 months, Carlos Alcaraz’s friends nicknamed him “Fed05” as a nod to Roger Federer’s immaculate 2005 season, which noticed the Swiss go 81-4 to keep up the second-greatest successful proportion (95.3%) in a season.
Maybe Jannik Sinner ought to have been given the moniker as a substitute.
On Sunday, the Italian joined Federer (2005) as the one male participant within the Open Period to go a whole season with out dropping a match by way of straight units, and the third general participant moreover Serena Williams (2013).
The stainless feat got here only a week after he turned the first man in 38 years to win the ATP Finals with out dropping a set.
Sinner steamrolled his competitors on the Davis Cup to energy his nation to a convincing victory within the World Cup of Tennis. He defeated Sebastian Baez (Argentina) within the quarterfinal, Alex de Minaur (Australia) within the semifinal and Tallon Griekspoor (Netherlands) within the closing as Italy turned solely the sixth nation to go back-to-back as Davis Cup champions, a 12 months after it defeated Australia within the decider.
The string of wins was the best technique to cap off Sinner’s dominant season. By ending with a report of 73-6 (92.4%), the World No. 1 joined Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal as the one gamers to win over 90% of their matches in a season within the twenty first century. Whereas Federer did it thrice (2005, 2006 and 2017), Djokovic (2011, 2015) and Nadal (2013, 2018) completed the feat on two separate events.
After his win on Sunday, Sinner was requested if it felt like he was “residing a dream” together with his 2024 exploits — eight titles together with his first two majors, largest single-event purse and general prize cash earned in a calendar 12 months and first Italian to complete World No. 1 since 1976, and so forth.
“Yeah, for positive,” Sinner responded. “It has been a tremendous profession. Vey, very pleased with the entire workforce — there’s a number of work behind it. We’re very completely satisfied to carry this trophy once more…It is an important competitors for Italy. You’ve got totally different [sort of] stress and the burden of getting Italy in your shoulders. I feel all of us dealt with it rather well. If it wasn’t essential, I would not be right here.”
Whereas the Italian males prevailed at Malaga, their feminine counterparts held their finish of the cut price by beating Slovakia within the closing of the Billie Jean Cup final week. Consequently, Italy gained the two team-based competitions in the identical 12 months for the primary time.
Sinner final misplaced a match to Alcaraz within the finals of the Beijing Open in September. Following that loss, he gained 14 consecutive matches to seize the Shanghai Masters, ATP Finals and Davis Cup. In these 14 matches, he was pushed to a deciding third set solely as soon as.
It goes with out saying that Sinner enters the 2025 Australian Open because the overwhelming favourite to repeat. At this juncture, his opponents can solely hope and pray he would not make drastic enhancements between seasons like he did between 2023 and 2024.
