After winning the Australian Open, Jannik Sinner does an encore and also wins the Rotterdam tournament beating the Australian Alex De Minaur in two sets in the final with a score of 7-5, 6-4. It is the twelfth career title for Sinner who becomes number 3 in the world immediately, without having to wait until February 26th.
The first set starts in a balanced way with the 2 tennis players leading 2-2. But in the fifth game Sinner scores the break and takes the lead at 3 to 2. The set continues without new breaks. It reaches 5-4. Sinner serves to bring home the set but surprisingly comes the counterbreak from the Australian. It’s 5-5. The blue tennis player, however, isn’t upset. In the following game he breaks his opponent’s serve and then coolly closes the set at 7 to 5.
The balance also continues in the second set. In the fourth game Sinner saves two break points and it goes 2 to 2. As happened in the first set the Italian scores a break in the fifth game. This time though the Australian’s response comes immediately and it’s 3-3. In the seventh game the blue breaks once again service to the opponent and takes the lead to 4 to 3. In the eighth game Sinner holds serve and consolidates the lead to 5 to 3. The ninth game belongs to De Minaur who remains clinging to the match. The blue serves for the match and makes no mistakes: he wins the Rotterdam tournament and enters history.
Jannik is the 61st player to reach the top three ATP positions since the ranking was computerized. He is the second Italian ever to do so after Nicola Pietrangeli who in the pre-computer era was number 3 in the world at the end of 1959 and at the end of 1960. The South Tyrolean reaches this milestone at 22 years and 6 months placing him as the 23rd youngest. The youngest top 3 in history are Andre Agassi (18 years, 6 months and 8 days), Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker (both 18 years, 6 months and 17 days), Rafael Nadal (19 years) and Carlos Alcaraz (19 years and 4 months).