Tennis: Factbox-Tennis-Australian Open men’s singles finalist Jannik Sinner

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Factbox on Australian Open finalist Jannik Sinner, the fourth seed, who beat defending champion Novak Djokovic 6-1 6-2 6-7(6) 6-3 in the semi-finals (Prefix numbers denote seeding).

Age: 22

Nation: Italy

ATP Ranking: 4

Seeding: 4

Grand Slam titles: 0

ROAD TO FINAL

First round: beat Botic van de Zandschulp (Netherlands) 6-4 7-5 6-3

Second round: beat Jesper De Jong (Netherlands) 6-2 6-2 6-2

Third round: beat 26-Sebastian Baez (Argentina) 6-0 6-1 6-3

Fourth round: beat 15-Karen Khachanov (Russia) 6-4 7-5 6-3

Quarter-finals: beat 5-Andrey Rublev (Russia) 6-4 7-6(5) 6-3

Semi-finals: beat 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 6-1 6-2 6-7(6) 6-3

EARLY LIFE

* Born in Innichen. Began playing tennis at age three.

CAREER TO DATE

* Began his professional career playing on the ITF Circuit in 2018.

* Won the ATP Challenger title in 2019, becoming the youngest Italian to do so. Qualified for the main draw of the 2019 U.S. Open, but suffered a defeat on his Grand Slam debut to former champion Stan Wawrinka.

* Won the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals by upsetting Alex de Minaur in straight sets. Ended the year ranked 78th in the world, winning the ATP Newcomer of the Year award.

* Won his first Grand Slam main draw match at the Australian Open 2020. He reached the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2020 by defeating David Goffin and Alexander Zverev before losing to Rafa Nadal.

* Won the 2020 Sofia Open, his first ATP title, and became the youngest Italian to win a tour-level title in the Open Era. Ended the year ranked 37th in the world.

* In 2021, he won the Great Ocean Road Open, Citi Open, Sofia Open and European Open and played in the ATP Finals as the first alternate. Ended the year ranked number 10 in the world.

* In 2022, he reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and U.S. Open. He lost the latter to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in a match that lasted five hours and 15 minutes, the second-longest in the tournament’s history.

* Reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon 2023 and won his first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open. He also reached a career-high ranking of world number four, becoming just the second Italian to reach the top five.

* Beat Novak Djokovic in the round-robin stage of the ATP Finals before losing to the Serb in the final. Helped Italy win the Davis Cup after a gap of 47 years in Nov. 2023.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)