By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday January 29, 2025
Jannik Sinner is off to a pulsating start as the World No.1.
The Italian has won 47 of his initial 50 matches since holding the ATP’s top ranking. It’s a relatively small sample size, compared to many of the 29 players that formerly held the tour’s top ranking, but it is far and away the best.
Sinner’s 94 percent winning percentage in matches played as the world No.1 is more than two percentage points higher than Bjorn Borg, who ranks second with a 91.9 winning percentage (136-12) as No.1.
Coming in third is Jimmy Connors, the only other player to have won more than 90 percent of his total matches played at No.1. Connors went 408-45 (90.1 percent) as the ATP’s top dog.
If you’re wondering how Sinner stacks up against the Big Three: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal eached played over 300 matches at No.1. Djokovic played the most of the Big Three, winning 485 and losing 78 for an 86.1 winning percentage. The Grand Slam king ranks sixth all-time in the category. No other player has competed in more than 500 matches at No.1.
Federer went 430-56 for an 88.5 winning percentage as No.1, and ranks fifth all-time. Nadal went 268-44 (85.9 percent) and ranks eighth all-time.
Per the ATP, Sinner has won a significantly higher percentage of his matches as No. 1 (94%) than he did before reaching the top (74.3%).
The 23-year-old three-time major champion is up to 34 weeks total as No. 1. He is trying to become just the fifth player in history to extend his first stint atop the ATP rankings to more than a year. Players to have previously accomplished that feat are Roger Federer (237 weeks), Connors (160 weeks), Lleyton Hewitt (75 weeks) and Djokovic (53 weeks).
