Fourth-ranked Jannik Cinnere (ITA) won his first career major title with an upset in the final of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Cinnere defeated Danil Medvedev (No. 3-Russia) 3-2 (3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3) in the men’s singles final of the tournament on Monday in Melbourne, Australia.
For reaching the final of a major for the first time and winning the title, Cinnere earned A$3.15 million ($2.77 million).
It is the first time in 10 years that a player other than the “Big Three” of Roger Federer (retired-Swiss), Rafael Nadal (No. 446-Spain) and Novak Djokovic (No. 1-Serbia) has won the Australian Open since Stan Wawrinka (No. 56-Switzerland) in 2014.
At 22 years, 165 days old, Cinnere is the youngest men’s singles winner at the Australian Open since Djokovic, who won in 2008 at the age of 20 years, 250 days.
He is only the second player born in the 2000s to win a major, joining Carlos Alcaraz (2nd-Spain), born in 2003, who won Wimbledon last year.
Cinnere is the third Italian man to win a major singles title in 48 years.
Nicola Pietrangeli won the French Open in 1959 and 1960, and Adriano Panata won the French Open in 1976.
It has been two years since the 2022 Australian Open that a player has won a singles final at a major after dropping the first two sets. That time, Nadal defeated Medvedev 3-2 (2-6 6-7<5-7> 6-4 6-4 7-5).
After upsetting Djokovic 3-1 (6-1 6-2 6-7<6-8> 6-3) in the quarterfinals, Sainz continued his momentum in the final and produced an upset.
Sinnehr was broken early in the first and second sets to fall to 0-2 down in the set.
However, her serve came alive in the third set and turned the tide.
In the first set, Cinnere was hitting just 54% (15/28) of her first serves, but in the third set, that number rose to 68% (19/28). Meanwhile, Medvedev’s first serve success rate, which was 86% (19/22) in the first set, dropped to 50% (15/30) in the third.
Medvedev, who had won three of his six matches to reach the semifinals of the tournament in straight sets, seemed to take more of a toll on his body as time went on.
Sinnehr was relatively untroubled, going unbeaten through the quarterfinals before dropping a set to Djokovic in the semifinals.
Sinnehr kept his composure to take the match to a fifth set, breaking Medvedev’s serve at 3-2 in the fifth game to win the match.
Medvedev was unable to smile in his third Australian Open final after winning in 2021 and 2022. Medvedev has reached the final of a major six times, but has only won the 2021 US Open.