Sinner, Alcaraz and De Miñaur among the champions of the first quarter | ATP Tour

History of the Season

Sinner, Alcaraz and De Miñaur, among the champions of the first quarter

A series of big stars lifted trophies in the first months of the 2024 season

April 01, 2024

By Andy West

Getting off to a quick start can be key when it comes to building a successful season on the ATP Tour.

In 2024, a host of world-class names have made a strong start, establishing early momentum and confidence on which they can build for the rest of the year and, perhaps most importantly, turn their impressive form into trophies.

Top 10 stars Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Miñaur have won at least one title in the first three months of the year. After a start to the year in which many personal milestones have been broken, a long trophy drought has been broken and there has been a wave of players becoming champions for the first time, ATPTour.com analyzes the champions of the first quarter of 2024.

Jannik Sinner: Australian Open, Rotterdam, Miami
After a brilliant end to the season in 2023, Sinner has only grown and improved in the first few months of this season. The 22-year-old won his first 16 matches of the year and, even after Alcaraz snapped that streak in the Indian Wells semifinals, Sinner immediately bounced back with the Miami title to rise to No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

The Italian began the year by breaking his losing streak in a Grand Slam at the Australian Open. In the semi-finals, he ended 10-time champion Novak Djokovic’s 33-match winning streak in Melbourne before overcoming a two-sets-to-one deficit against Medvedev in the title match. At 22 years and 165 days, Sinner was the youngest man to win the Australian Open since Djokovic’s first triumph in 2008.

Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Photo Credit: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Clearly established as the fittest man on tour, Sinner claimed his 12th and 13th tour crowns – losing just one set in each – at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam and the Miami Open presented by Itau. , respectively. After amassing a 22-1 record so far this year, Sinner leads the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin.

More wins on the Tour in 2024

Carlos Alcaraz: Indian Wells
A quarter-final at the Australian Open and a semi-final in Buenos Aires represented a solid if unspectacular start to the year for Alcaraz. However, someone who has set such a spectacularly high standard since he arrived on the ATP Tour could not be satisfied with those results, and the Spaniard returned to form – and the winner’s circle – in style at the BNP Paribas Open.

Alcaraz dropped just two sets on his way to becoming the first man to defend his title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in California since Djokovic won three in a row there in 2014-16. The 20-year-old maintained his concentration to dismantle Alexander Zverev in a quarter-final that was strangely interrupted by a swarm of bees that swept the court, before raising his level to overcome the previously undefeated Sinner in the semi-finals. .

The reissue of the Indian Wells 2023 final against Medvedev produced the same result – a victory in straight sets for Alcaraz – and the Spaniard won his fifth Masters 1000 crown and his first title since his victory at Wimbledon eight months earlier. Although quarter-final elimination in Miami dropped him below Sinner to world No. 3, Alcaraz will now prepare for the European clay court tour with regained confidence.

Alex de Miñaur: Acapulco
There is something about the Mexican Pacific coast that brings out the best in De Minaur.

The Australian triumphed for the second consecutive year at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC with a series of solid performances in Acapulco. He beat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud on his way to the trophy at the ATP 500, before immediately setting off in a race against time to see his girlfriend, WTA star Katie Boulter, compete in a final of her own in San Diego .

His Acapulco triumph added to an impressive January for De Minaur, who broke into the Top 10 for the first time after posting back-to-back wins against Taylor Fritz, Djokovic and Zverev while representing Australia in the United Cup. Chasing his debut in the Nitto ATP Finals, De Minaur arrives in April in fifth position in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.

Ugo Humbert: Marseille, Dubai
If you make it to an ATP Tour final, Ugo Humbert is not the player you want to see on the other side of the net. In February, the 25-year-old Frenchman improved to 6-0 in tour matches by dispatching Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Bublik in Marseille and Dubai, respectively.

Both titles were notable in other ways for Humbert. As his coach, Jeremy Chardy, was unavailable for his Provence Open 13 campaign, his girlfriend and WTA player Tessah Andrianjafitrimo acted as a substitute during the week at the ATP 250. At the same time, his victory at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, his second in the ATP 500 category, lifted him to world No. 14, the best of his career.

Sebastian Báez: Rio de Janeiro, Santiago
Like Humbert, Sebastián Báez also completed an ATP 500/ATP 250 double in February. The 23-year-old lifted the biggest trophy of his career at the Rio Open presented by Claro, where he beat three Argentines and local favorite Thiago Monteiro to bag his fifth trophy on the ATP Tour.

A week later, Báez became six-time champion after beating local Alejandro Tabilo at the Movistar Chile Open. With his victory in Santiago, which made him the first player to win multiple titles during the South American clay court circuit since 2020, Báez broke the Top 20 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time.

Grigor Dimitrov: Brisbane
Grigor Dimitrov broke a six-year wait for his ninth ATP Tour title in style at the Brisbane International presented by Evie, where the Bulgarian defeated top seed Holger Rune in the ATP 250 final to lift his first trophy since the Nitto ATP Finals 2017. Dimitrov has maintained his excellent start to the year since, improving his record for the year to 20-5 as he reached his third Masters 1000 final in Miami, and is currently sixth in the PIF Live Race to Turin.

Andrey Rublev: Hong Kong
Rublev extended his year-end celebrations at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open, where he captured his 15th tour title in the first week of the season at the ATP 250. The 26-year-old outlasted the stars of the #NextGenATP Arthur Fils and Shang Juncheng before defeating Emil Ruusuvuori to become the first ATP Tour champion in Hong Kong since 2002.

Other Q1 champions…
There are now five players who have won an ATP Tour title for the first time in 2024. Jiri Lehecka and Alejandro Tabilo began in early January by lifting their first trophies in Adelaide and Auckland, respectively. Luciano Darderi (Córdoba), Facundo Díaz Acosta (Buenos Aires) and Jordan Thompson (Los Cabos) also entered the circuit’s winners’ circle for the first time.

For his part, Alexander Bublik won his fourth crown in Montpellier, where he became the first player in history to win an ATP Tour event having lost the first set in each of his matches. Tommy Paul (Dallas), Taylor Fritz (Delray Beach) and Karen Khachanov (Doha), the Kazakh’s colleagues in the Top 20, have also released their record in April.