Jannik Sinner officially became the first Italian tennis player to achieve the year-end No. 1 ranking on Monday during the ATP Finals in Turin.
Sinner had already secured the top spot before the tournament began. He defeated Alex de Minaur from Australia on Sunday in his opening match at the season-ending event.
The Italian succeeds Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who has concluded eight seasons as the top-ranked player. Former player Boris Becker presented Sinner with the award.
"It's very special occasion to share that here in Italy," he said.
"I would like to thank you for the support around the world, to thank my team. Without the people who are close to me, who understand me as a person, who I am, it would be very difficult," Sinner added, calling himself "very lucky".
“I just heard that my mom was crying, which is something very cute,” Sinner said. “Only they know from my early age and stages, when I was around 13, how many sacrifices we made as a family.
“Now I’m standing here with one of the, maybe the most special trophy I have.”
On 10 June, Sinner became the first man or woman from Italy to reach World No. 1 in singles since computerised rankings were introduced in 1973. He has not relinquished that spot since.
The 23-year-old is the 19th player to clinch the year-end No. 1 honour and just the fourth active player to do so. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz are the others.
“It’s a great competition between this and Grand Slams,” Sinner said. “This is a very consistent trophy. You have to play one year very consistent tennis, so this is for sure a very, very tough trophy to get.”
Sinner's season has been dogged by controversy after he twice tested positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March.
He was initially cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency but at the end of September the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed, seeking a ban of up to two years.
Sinner won his first match at ATP Finals on Sunday against Alex De Minaur.
Becker, who spent 221 days at No. 1 in 1991 but never ended a year on top, attended the presentation.
He said that while "there are certainly Carlos Alcaraz and others, Jannik is going to be world No.1 for a long time."
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