Sinner continues red-hot run, clinches Rotterdam crown

There is no stopping Jannik Sinner right now.

The Italian captured his second tour-level title of the season on Sunday when he defeated Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-4 to win the ABN AMRO Open for the first time.

The 22-year-old produced his trademark style of clean-hitting, aggressive tennis to overpower the Australian in Rotterdam. Sinner struck 23 winners and recovered from squandering a break advantage in both sets to earn his 15th tour-level win in a row after two hours and five minutes. He holds a perfect 7-0 record in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Sinner, who captured his first major crown at the Australian Open last month, will rise to a career-high No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday. No Italian man has ever been as high.

"My team, we did a really good job a few weeks ago and now we made a very good job here," Sinner said. "I am really proud with the level that I played throughout this whole week. We have been in tough situations but we handled it the right way. We will always try to improve, it is the most important."

Sinner has now won three consecutive ATP 500 events he has played (also Beijing and Vienna at the end of 2023). Following his Aussie Open run, the Italian played with confidence and purpose all week, dropping just one set at the indoor hard tournament for his 12th tour-level title.

The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals champion has now won 32 of the past 34 matches. His only defeats have come against Ben Shelton in Shanghai and Novak Djokovic in the Nitto ATP Finals title match.

De Minaur will move to a career-high No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday. The Australian, who beat Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals, holds a 7-8 record in tour-level finals.

Champion @abnamroopen 🏆🎾@janniksin takes the title in Rotterdam with a magic 🎱 #ShotQuality 👊#TennisInsights | @atptour | #abnamroopen pic.twitter.com/z6mUuIA9DO

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) February 18, 2024

In a high-intensity clash, bruising baseline rallies were a common theme throughout the first set. After Sinner gained the break in the opener, he failed to serve out at 5-4, with De Minaur saving four set points to level. However, the Italian would not be denied, breaking immediately in the next game when De Minaur decided to leave a volley that landed in. The Italian then held comfortably to move ahead.

The top seed was made to dig deep at times in the second set against De Minaur, who pushed the Italian to the limit with his flat groundstrokes. However, as has been the case in recent months, Sinner had the answers. Just as in the first set, Sinner was pegged back after gaining the initial break, but he rallied and continued to hit through the fifth seed to win, raising his arms in delight.