Last year in Turin, Jannik Sinner became the first man to win the Nitto ATP Finals without dropping a set since Lendl in 1986. He can do it again in 2025.
The Italian overcame Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 37 minutes to reach the semi-finals of the last season’s ATP Championship, and he did so without dropping a set.
“Very close match,” said Sinner. “I felt like I was serving really well in the important moments, I tried to play the best tennis possible when it mattered, and luckily today it went my way.”
It made it 14 straight sets won at ATP Finals, a stat that was cheered by a packed house at Turin’s Inalpi Arena on Wednesday as Sinner also extended his hard-court winning streak to 28.
Sinner is now 12-2 lifetime in ATP Finals, and ranks second all-time in winning percentage at the event.
Sinner made it five straight wins over Zverev (with four coming in 2025) to improve his overall record against the third-ranked German to 6-4.
Zverev had chances early on, but didn’t capitalize on them.
The 28-year-old had two break points in the opening game but came up empty.
Still, he held serve until the last game, and even saved two set points while serving at 4-5. But Zverev couldn’t hang on and fell victim two points later on the third set point as Sinner pushed the reel, hit the ground down both lines and into the net to push an open-court volley winner for a 6-4 lead in 47 minutes.
Ten forehand winners for Sinner to zero for Zverev in the first set don’t tell the whole story, but they hint at why Zverev lost the set despite hitting 87 percent of his first serves and winning 19 of his 26 first serve points.
“I’m very pleased with how I returned the serve,” Sinner said. “It’s very difficult – he has one of the best serves in the game.”
The sinner’s work was not done. He had to serve three high-quality first serves from 0-40 down in the third game, which left Zverev gesturing with his box as if to say “What should I do?”
Zverev had another break point in the fifth game, which also went begging, and that was Sinner’s cue to fold. The Italian exploded in style in the next game, hitting a sharp angled forehand that Zverev couldn’t even attempt to follow up for 4-2.
The final nail in the coffin came when Zverev missed a first serve return at the net late in the next game.
Sinner faced seven break points in total that day and made his first serve on every one of them.
He held or 5-2 and ended the match two games later to improve to 55-6 on the season.
Sinner will face Ben Shelton in his final round match of the week, while Zverev will face Felix Auger-Aliassime for the second semi-final spot.
