When Novak Djokovic completed the Career Golden Masters in 2018, it stood as one of the sport’s most remarkable achievements. No player had ever captured all nine ATP Masters 1000 crowns, and it had taken the Serbian 11 years of toil, from his first breakthrough at the 2007 Miami Open presented by Itau to finally check the last box at the Cincinnati Open.
Jannik Sinner has now rewritten that timeline.
By triumphing on home soil at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Sinner completed his own Career Golden Masters, less than three years after lifting his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy in Toronto. What took Djokovic more than a decade, Sinner has achieved in 33 months.
Djokovic’s path began in south Florida in 2007, when as a 19-year-old who was making his Top 10 debut that week, he stormed to the Miami title. The Serbian beat rival Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, just 10 days removed from losing to the Spaniard in the Indian Wells final. Djokovic then beat Andy Murray in the semis and Guillermo Canas in the final.
“I was always trying to compare myself to the best players in the world, because that's what I want to be one day,” Djokovic said at the time. “Right now I feel like probably for the first time in my career that I am on that level, that I deserve to be one of the three best players in the world right now.”
That statement was less of a bold prediction from Djokovic and more of an early recognition of what he could accomplish. Over the next 11 seasons, Djokovic conquered nearly every milestone at the ATP Masters 1000 events before finally completing the full set of trophies in Cincinnati, a title that had eluded him in five previous final appearances. Djokovic had won the other ATP Masters 1000 events at least twice each before winning his first Cincinnati trophy.
“Definitely one of the most special moments in my career,” Djokovic said after beating Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the 2018 Cincinnati final. “Making history [in] the sport that I truly love is a great privilege and honour and something that I'll be very proud of for the rest of my life.”
The record 40-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist has since completed the Career Golden Masters twice. He won Cincinnati for a second time in 2020.
Sinner’s journey to the rare Career Golden Masters has been more accelerated. At the beginning of March, the 24-year-old owned five ATP Masters 1000 titles. He has since doubled that number. The Italian was the No. 8 player in the PIF ATP Rankings when he achieved his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the 2023 National Bank Open presented by Rogers.
“This is every tennis player's dream, to win one of these tournaments,” Sinner said in Toronto. “Watching it on TV, obviously — I started to believe a little bit more from last year because I felt like I had the level to go a little bit further in every tournament.”
Dating back to last year’s Rolex Shanghai Masters, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has won a record six consecutive ATP Masters 1000 events, including the Sunshine Double and a clean sweep of the three clay-court tournaments at that level. Sinner has won a record 34 consecutive matches at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments.
“I would have never imagined to stand here as the player what I'm right now,” Sinner said after his Rome quarter-final win. “Back in the days when I was younger, I never thought I would arrive to such a high level of tennis.”
Now Sinner does not have to imagine such success. He is standing at the summit of ATP Masters 1000 glory.
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