World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, absent from the circuit since his title at Wimbledon in mid-July due to a right knee injury, withdrew on Saturday from the Masters 1000 in Shanghai (October 7-18).
“Unfortunately, I will not be able to compete in the Shanghai Masters 1000 as I had hoped,” he wrote on his Instagram account.
The Italian, who withdrew at the end of September from the Beijing tournament where he was the defending champion, did not give any further explanations to justify his withdrawal. According to the Italian press, the 25-year-old champion consulted doctor Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet on Friday in Lyon, specializing in knee injuries, who recently operated on the French international footballer from Juventus Turin, Khéphren Thuram.
Sinner’s prolonged absence increases the chances of his runner-up Alexander Zverev of settling at the top of the ATP rankings for the first time by the end of the year.
Currently, 1370 points separate the top two players in the world.
If he is not going to lose many points with this new package (he was eliminated, by abandonment, in the 3rd round of the Chinese tournament in 2025), Sinner on the other hand still has many points to defend between now and the end of the season, since he had won the Vienna tournament, the Masters 1000 in Paris and the Turin Masters, which brings 1500 points to its winner.
Zverev (29 years old) had performed much less well at the end of last season and will therefore be able to collect more points than Sinner in the last tournaments of the year.
Winner of his first two Grand Slam titles in 2026, at Roland Garros and the US Open, semi-finalist at the Australian Open and finalist at Wimbledon, the German is having the best season of his career.
