Jannik Sinner climbed to a career-high world number 2, 1015 points behind Novak Djokovic. Sinner will have the chance to overtake Novak Djokovic and become world number 1, if he maintains his current period of form. Last Sunday Sinner won the second Masters 1000 title of his career following his triumph in Toronto last August.
“The win in Miami is a huge pleasure to share with my team, my family and all the people watching at home. The atmosphere has been amazing throughout the whole 10 days. This is one of the most special tournaments for me. It’s good to be back and I hope to see you all back again next year”, said Sinner.
Djokovic will have to defend 2315 points on clay against Sinner’s 585. Sinner will only drop 45 points after his second round defeat at last year’s edition of the French Open.
Sinner won three titles at the Australian Open, Rotterdam and Miami and lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells semifinal during a very successful 2024 season.
“I try to improve and enjoy the moment. Today I won the important points and that made the difference. In the last two matches, I faced two totally different players like Medvedev and Dimitrov. It’s nice to find a different solution each time to face different opponents. Now there is the clay season and it’s totally different, but even there, we’ll see how I manage things, and we will see how it goes”, said Sinner.
Sinner admitted in his interview after his triumph against Grigor Dimitrov in the Miami Open Final that he will have limited time to adapt to prepare for the clay season which starts next week with the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He recognized that he needs time to adapt his playing style in the transition from hard-court to clay.
“On Thursday I am going to hit on clay for the first time and in Monte-Carlo I will be starting on Tuesday or Wednesday already, so there is not much room to try things out. Monte-Carlo is a difficult tournament because players have not time to adapt to the different conditions. I always struggled in Madrid. I feel better in Rome. I hope I will be able to play in Paris. For me it’s going to be an important week because mentally I have to be ready to change something right from the start since I can’t play like I did on hard-court. I am glad to go back to clay because I feel like it makes a better player”, said Sinner.
Sinner feels like he can play on every surface and become an all-round player.
“I made quarter finals in all Grand Slams and in different surfaces. I feel like getting stronger physically helps you a lot, because like when the ball is bouncing a little bit lower, if you have a little more strength, you can play a little bit longer with this. Let’s see this year on clay how I can handle the situation. It’s going to be this year. I will not have a lot of time to adapt to the clay season because Monte-Carlo is coming very soon”
Sinner has become the highest ranked Italian player in history since 1973 and is aiming to become the 29th player to reach the world number 1 before the end of the year.
“It has been a very special week for me. I have faced very different situations on the court, different oppontents. I was full of energy during the Miami final. I am very happy to be the number two in the world, but it’s just a number. For me the most important thing is trying to execute my game plan in the best possible way, which I have done. I am happy. From the end of last year until now I have been very consistent. The way we practise is making me stronger and I am in the zone. Let’s see how long it lasts. What does this feel like ? You anticipate your opponent’s game a little more and I was very focused to try and understand what is happening in important moments”, said Sinner.
