Sinner: Winning Davis Cup Title Was Like Icing On The Cake For His 2024 Season

Jannik Sinner, Italy, Davis Cup
Jannik Sinner (photo: Matt McNulty/Getty Images for ITF)

MALAGA/WASHINGTON, November 27, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

Jannik Sinner had just clinched Italy’s second consecutive Davis Cup title and capped his breakthrough season at the top of men’s tennis Sunday in Malaga, Spain. Now, it was time for him to celebrate with his Italian teammates, wrapping their arms around each other and bouncing up and down on the court. Happy times.

Winning the Davis Cup for a second time, before a crowd of 9,200 that filled Martín Carpena Arena – including many loud and proud, blue-clad Italian fans – was like icing on the cake for Sinner. It was the culmination of a remarkable 2024 for the South Tyrolean.

The World No. 1 Sinner won all three of his singles matches during the Davis Cup Finals and collaborated with teammate Matteo Berrettini to garner an all-important doubles point that allowed Italy to escape its quarterfinal tie against Argentina with a 2-1 victory in the annual team event. Italy went on to beat Australia 2-0 in the semifinal round and defeated the Netherlands by an identical score in the final. It was the third time Italy had won the Davis Cup in 93 seasons of playing for the most prestigious prize in team competition, going all the way back to 1922.

By the time Sinner hit 15 aces and defeated No. 40 Tallon Griekspoor, 7-6 (2), 6-2 on Sunday for a 2-0 win over the Netherlands in the Davis Cup final, it put a wrap on the 2024 tennis season – but not before Italy’s team captain, Filippo Volandri, came rushing out on the court and gave Sinner a bear hug in delight.

Italy had become the first team since Czechia in 2012 and 2013 to win the Davis Cup twice in a row and just the sixth nation in Davis Cup history to retain their title.

“Coming back as defending champions and winning again — it’s one of the best feelings I think for all of us,” Sinner said. “We are very happy to lift this trophy and, of course, also to go into the preseason with a bunch of confidence boosts. …

“This [Davis Cup] success means a lot to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have been here.”

Berrettini was asked during Italy’s final news conference to describe what it was like to watch the 23-year-old Sinner in action. “It’s a special experience. I’m going to be honest,” he said, smiling. “Last year, when we were here, we were looking each other’s eyes, and we were, like, this guy is something else, something different.

“Everybody was saying, we never ever saw someone hitting the ball so hard, so flat, and so many times in. It looked like he couldn’t miss.

“So since then, I think he lost six matches, so I think he just proved that he’s the best in the world,” Berrettini added. “As you can see, he’s the humblest guy on the planet. He came here like he didn’t win the ATP Tour finals; he didn’t win everything that he won. He came here. He showed so much respect for the team. …

“Obviously the tennis is impressive, but I think the way he manages everything off court and relationship with team people is what makes him special and why we have two of these (trophies) now back in Italy.”

After the final match, Griekspoor gave props to Sinner, saying: “Jannik in this kind of form, this kind of shape, this kind of confidence – he’s incredibly tough to beat.”

World No. 9 Alex de Minaur of Australia, who lost for the ninth straight time to Sinner in the semifinals last Saturday, said that playing him is “like trying to solve a puzzle that not a lot of people have managed to solve. That’s probably the best way I would describe it.”

Looking back on his year, Sinner went 73-6, won eight titles on the ATP Tour, including three Masters 1000 crowns – Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai – and captured his first two Grand Slam titles, at the Australian Open and the US Open. Add to it, he won a couple of 500-level prizes – at Rotterdam and Halle – and capped the Tour season by winning the ATP Finals title. He also received ATP Year-End No. 1 accolades.

Sinner finished the 2024 season with 14 consecutive wins and won 26 consecutive sets. He became the first player since Roger Federer in 2005 to complete a season without a straight-set loss.

From the start of the North American hard-court season, following a quarterfinal result at Wimbledon, Sinner compiled a 30-1 win-loss record. His only blemish came at the hands of four-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, in a three-set loss in the final of the ATP 500 hard-court even in Beijing that ended a 16-match winning streak. Afterward, Sinner started a new winning streak that will carry over into his 2025 season.

As it developed, Sinner’s ascension to the top of the men’s game – the first Italian to be ranked No. 1 – became one of the biggest stories in tennis this year. He also made news for a different reason – this time off the court. Just before Sinner won the US Open title in early September, he was cleared of wrong doing in a doping case connected to two positive tests for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid in March. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal of that ruling is still pending and may not be decided before the start of the 2025 season.

Regardless, Sinner has done an incredible job compartmentalizing the off-the-court situation. “I mean, of course it’s in the head a little bit. I always say, you know, we had three hearings, three hearings which came out in a positive way. So hopefully also the next one, it’s out,” he said Sunday night, during Italy’s final Davis Cup news conference.

“But for me, the most important part is that all the people who are around me and know me as a human being trust me, no? That’s also the reason I kept playing the level I had. Of course, I had some ups and downs, and whoever knows me, I was emotionally a bit down and a bit also heartbroken, no. But sometimes, life gives you difficulties and you just have to stand for it.

“This is also, you know, with I think from outside it’s always very, very difficult to say if someone has a problem or not, because we always try to compete in the best possible way we are,” Sinner added. “But I’m not concerned. I will work with them as I did the three previous times, and then we see what’s coming out, no? Whatever I can control, I can control. And then we see.”

Sinner, for one, is looking forward to some time off from tennis and the Tour. He will go home to San Candido to spend quality time with his family and friends and to unwind. It’s usually a time of the year where Sinner allows himself to get out on the Italian Alps to go skiing and, simply, have some fun.

“You know, it was a very long season,” Sinner said. “We were just joking around that not even in one month we restart again if you want to play tournament straightaway. So you have to also enjoy a little bit the times off, if you can, surround yourself with good people, and that’s it.”

 

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