Sinner completes Career Golden Masters

Dubai: Jannik Sinner became only the second male player in history to achieve the Career Golden Masters on Sunday, and he did it in front of his home fans at the Italian Open in Rome.

The Italian joined Novak Djokovic as the only players in history to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments since the series began in 1990, achieving the milestone after defeating Casper Ruud in the final at the Foro Italico.

The Wimbledon champion made his breakthrough at Masters 1000 level in Toronto in 2023, where, at 21-years-old, he defeated Alex de Minaur in straight sets to become only the second Italian player to win a Masters 1000 title, following Fabio Fognini, who achieved the feat in Monte Carlo in 2019.

The victory in Canada sparked a strong surge in form through 2024, a year in which Sinner also reached world No. 1 in the ATP Rankings for the first time.

He went on to capture hard-court Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Cincinnati, and Shanghai, winning all three finals in straight sets without dropping a single set.

In Shanghai, Sinner defeated Djokovic in the final, having already secured the ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF ranking earlier in the season.

Sinner arrived in Paris last October as a four-time Masters 1000 champion, but his remarkable rise since then has seen the 24-year-old complete the Career Golden Masters seven years earlier than Novak Djokovic, who achieved it at age 31.

Over the past six months, he has been in dominant form, winning titles in Paris, Indian Wells, and Miami without dropping a set. He completed the full set of hard-court Masters 1000 trophies at Indian Wells.

Heading into the clay-court season, Sinner had yet to win in Monte-Carlo, Madrid, or Rome, but he quickly changed that narrative. He beat his rival Carlos Alcaraz in the Monte-Carlo final, then defeated Alexander Zverev in straight sets in Madrid, becoming the first player ever to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles.

He then made history on home soil in Rome, becoming the first Italian man to win the tournament since Adriano Panatta in 1976.

At that point, the world No. 1 had amassed 10 Masters 1000 titles, including two in Miami, and had not lost a set in any Masters 1000 final he had won.

He also extended a 34-match winning streak at Masters 1000 level, with his last defeat coming in Shanghai, where he retired against Tallon Griekspoor.

Meanwhile, Djokovic remains the only player to complete the full set of nine Masters 1000 titles twice, first achieving it in Cincinnati in 2018 and repeating it in 2020, and he holds the record with 40 Masters 1000 crowns.

Sinner’s surge has also put him within reach of Djokovic’s single-season record of six Masters 1000 titles, as he has already claimed five in the current season.

By winning Monte-Carlo, Madrid, and Rome in the same year, Sinner also joined Rafael Nadal as the only players to sweep all three clay-court Masters 1000 events in a single season, a feat Nadal first achieved in 2010.