20 sensational things Jannik Sinner achieved at the Australian Open this year

There was no stopping Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open this year as he powered his way to the first Grand Slam title of his career, capping it with an epic 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 comeback victory over Daniil Medvedev in the final on Sunday night.

Here are 20 things the Italian achieved in Melbourne this year:

He’s the third Italian man ever to win a Grand Slam title. The first two were Nicola Pietrangeli, at Roland Garros in 1959 and 1960, and Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros as well, in 1976.

He’s the fifth Italian player ever, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title. Francesca Schiavone (2010 Roland Garros) and Flavia Pennetta (2015 US Open) also won majors on the women’s side.

He’s the first Italian player ever, male or female, to win the Australian Open. He was the first to even reach the final!

He’s the first new Australian Open men’s champion since 2014. Since Stan Wawrinka, it was nine years of Big 3 champions (Rafael Nadal once, Roger Federer twice and Novak Djokovic six times).

He’s the second man born in the 2000s to win a major. Carlos Alcaraz has won two, at the 2022 US Open and 2023 Wimbledon.

He’s the first player born in the 2000s, male or female, to win the Australian Open. It was the only one missing from the 2000s cohort—they had already won Roland Garros (Iga Swiatek), Wimbledon (Alcaraz) and the US Open (Bianca Andreescu, Emma Raducanu, Swiatek, Alcaraz and Coco Gauff).

And at 22, he’s the youngest man to win the Australian Open since Djokovic in 2008. Djokovic was 20 years old when he won the first of his 24 career Grand Slam titles in Melbourne.

Speaking of Djokovic, here are some things Sinner achieved with his 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 semifinal victory over the world No. 1:

He snapped Djokovic’s 33-match winning streak at the Australian Open. Djokovic’s last loss in Melbourne had been a fourth-round defeat to Chung Hyeon on January 22nd, 2018. Since then he won 33 in a row at the event, the men’s Open Era record.

He snapped Djokovic’s 17-match winning streak against Top 5 players at the Australian Open. Djokovic hadn’t lost to a Top 5 player in Melbourne since he was a teenager, falling to a No. 1-ranked Federer in the fourth round in 2007.

He became the first player ever to beat Djokovic in an Australian Open semifinal. Djokovic had been 10-0 in that round going in—his 10-0 record in Australian Open finals remains intact, though.

He became the first player ever to beat Djokovic when he’s the No. 1 seed at the Australian Open. Djokovic had been a ridiculous 47-0 in his career as the top seed at the Happy Slam.

He became the first Italian man to beat a reigning No. 1 at a Grand Slam since ATP rankings began in 1973. Italian men had been a combined 0-23 against No. 1s at majors beforehand.

And perhaps the most incredible one: Sinner became the first player ever to not face a break point against Djokovic in a completed match at a Grand Slam. Djokovic didn’t get a look at a single break point in Sinner’s 19 service games.

And now, another batch of Sin-sational Sinner stats:

He’s just the second man in the Open Era to win an Australian Open final from two sets down. Nadal was the first, doing it in the 2022 final against—unfortunately—Medvedev.

He’s the second-youngest man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam final from two sets down. The youngest was Bjorn Borg, who did it as an 18-year-old in the Roland Garros final in 1974.

He got his first Top 5 win at a major—and his second, and his third. He came into the tournament with an 0-8 career record against Top 5 players at majors, but he then took out No. 5 Andrey Rublev in the quarters, then No. 1 Djokovic, then No. 3 Medvedev.

Since the US Open he’s now 12-1 against Top 10 players, 10-1 against Top 5 players and 8-1 against Top 3 players. The only loss in all three records came to Djokovic in the ATP Finals final.

He’s now 27-2 since the US Open, period. His only losses since New York have come to Ben Shelton in the third round of Shanghai, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), and to Djokovic in the ATP Finals final, 6-3, 6-3.

He’s now won 11 career titles at 10 different events. The only event he’s won twice is the indoor event in Sofia, in 2020 and 2021. This was his second title at Melbourne Park, though—he won a title here in 2021, an ATP 250 lead-up to the Australian Open that year.

And finally, he may not have moved up from No. 4 on the ATP rankings, but he cut the gap between him and No. 3 Medvedev by more than half. Coming in, the gap was 1,065 ranking points (7,555 to 6,490). Now it’s just 455 ranking points (8,765 to 8,310).