Sinner cements No. 1 ranking, Nadal sets retirement date, and more this week in tennis

On Saturday, Jannik Sinner clinched the year-end world No. 1 ranking with his semifinal victory over Tomas Machac at the Shanghai Masters, becoming the first Italian player in history to do so.

And 24 hours later, he proved exactly why he deserves the distinction with a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Novak Djokovic in the final — providing an exclamation point (or several) to his impressive tournament and season. It marked Sinner’s ATP-leading seventh title of the year, and he now has won his past three meetings against the 24-time major champion, becoming the first player to do so since Rafael Nadal (yes, much more on him shortly) in 2013.

“It was a very tough match, obviously, playing against Novak is one of the toughest challenges we have,” Sinner said after. “I’m very happy with how I handled the situation.”

Djokovic had been looking to become just the third man to win his 100th career singles title, but Sinner was unfazed by his opponent or what was on the line, nor did he seem distracted by the likes of Roger Federer and Carlos Alcaraz watching from the stands. Instead, the 23-year-old Sinner was clinical in his performance and held off a focused Djokovic in one hour and 37 minutes.

Sinner needed a tiebreak to take the opening set but then seized control. He jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set and never relented. Sinner had eight aces and 22 winners in the match — and never faced a break point throughout the tournament.

Even Djokovic couldn’t help but be impressed after the match.

“I think I played some really good tennis, but congratulations to Jannik,” Djokovic said during the trophy ceremony. “He was just too good today. Too strong, too fast, well done. You’re having an incredible year. You deserve this.”

Sinner leveled his career head-to-head record with Djokovic at four matches each, and became the first man to earn seven or more titles in a single season since Andy Murray won nine in 2016, and the first player to record three or more ATP Masters-1000 titles in a year since Nadal in 2018.

IMMENSO SINNER 💪🇮🇹💪

The moment Jannik Sinner defeated Djokovic to claim his 4th ATP Masters title 🏆@janniksin #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/gUBIocvvgQ

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 13, 2024

Here’s what else happened in the tennis world last week.

Rafa makes it official

Of course, that leads us to Nadal’s big news.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave without cell phone service, you’re likely aware…