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Jannik Sinner showed amazing progress in the second half of 2023, culminating in winning the ATP Masters 1000 in Toronto and qualifying among the top 4 at the ATP Finals in Turin. In a few hours, in fact, the young Italian champion will challenge Daniil Medvedev in the first semifinal of the year-end Master.
Sinner is obtaining impressive data, which certifies a monstrous growth in recent months. Suffice it to say that against Holger Rune he won his 60th challenge in 2023: few have done better. The victory against Rune was very important for Jannik.
The Dane was ahead 2-0 head-to-head and was the only top-10 player Sinner had never beaten. Sinner rarely loses many matches back to back against the same opponent. On the circuit he has only suffered important series from Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev and, in the past from the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
A statistic relating to the last matches played against the Top-15 is nothing short of impressive. Jannik Sinner won his last match against 15 of the top 16 tennis players in the world. He lost to Ben Shelton and beat him a few days later, re-establishing his dominance.
The only tennis player who can currently say that he won his last match with Sinner is the German Alexander Zverev, an athlete who beat Jannik at the 2023 US Open. Sinner was eliminated in the round of 16 against the German only in the fifth and decisive set, after an interminable battle.
And Sinner's words after teh win over Rune were wise
At the press conference, after the victory against Rune, the Italian tennis player explained: "When I was little I didn't follow tennis but I think this is a great moment for the kids.
Giving this opportunity to these kids is a great thing and it's also special for us tennis players. Mental progress compared to last year? Yes, I've been working on it for a while and it's all thanks to Formula Medicine. The boss is Riccardo Ceccarelli and he was also in the box here, as well as in the match against Novak.
It's not a work that is done by talking face to face, but you work on the computer and calculate how much of your brain is used. It's a process to make everything more automatic: something different than mental coaches and we've been working with him for a few years, I feel like I've improved.
Back problems? A little in the second set but luckily it went away straight away. At a certain point I made a movement and felt something but it went away, my body is fine. It was important for me to restart after the victory with Djokovic, start from scratch and be ready for a tough fight against Rune.
I had never won against him and I finally did it, he is a great tennis player with a great serve, it was fantastic to win."