Sinner earns 60th win of the season after beating Japan’s Taro Daniel

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner became the first player to reach 60 wins on the season Saturday when he defeated Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-1, 6-4 in his Rolex Shanghai Masters opener.

Adding to an already spectacular season, Sinner also became the first player born in the 2000s to reach 250 wins as he remains on track to surpass his record 64 wins last season, which stands as the most by an Italian man in the Open Era.

“I felt quite comfortable today,” said the 23-year-old, fresh off his Beijing final run. “I feel in good shape also physically, which is very important for me. Of course I will try to improve for tomorrow’s performance, but today I was serving really, really well, especially in important moments, and was moving well.”

Since 2000, Jannik Sinner is the sixth player aged 23 or under to achieve 60+ ATP match wins in consecutive seasons:

Hewitt, 2000-02

Roddick, 2003-04

Federer, 2003-04

Nadal, 2007-09

Djokovic, 2007-10

Sinner, 2023-24 🆕

Jannik Sinner becomes the first man to win 60+ matches in back to back seasons since Novak Djokovic & Andy Murray did it 8 years ago. 2023 – 64 wins, 2024 – 60 & counting.

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray both did it in 2015 & 2016.

Sinner is now 14-0 in opening-round matches this year and has reached the quarter-finals in all 13 tournaments played in 2024. He is 51-0 against players outside the Top 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings since losing to No. 66 Serbian Dusan Lajovic in Cincinnati last year.

The Italian will next meet 31st seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the third round. He could face a Shanghai rematch with 14th seed Ben Shelton beyond that, one year after the American knocked him out of the ATP Masters 1000 in what was their first ATP meeting.