Sinner recently won the Australian Open for a second time, extending his streak of consecutive hard-court Grand Slam victories to three, having taken home the titles in Melbourne and New York in 2024.

The 23-year-old has now held the number-one ranking for 34 weeks, since overtaking Novak Djokovic last June.

Sinner looks to be the best player on the planet right now, and it will take some effort to knock him off the top spot.

He’s won 270 matches on the ATP Tour since making his debut in 2019, but was he successful on debut?

Mate Valkusz: The first player to lose to Jannik Sinner on the ATP Tour

A 17-year-old Sinner headed to Hungary in April 2019, in an attempt to qualify for the main draw of an ATP tournament for the first time.

He had won his first Challenger Tour event two months earlier in his native Italy, but was searching for a real breakthrough in Budapest.

Unfortunately for the youngster, he came unstuck in the second round of qualifying as he fell to Germany’s Yannick Maden in straight sets.

Luckily for Sinner, he chose to stick around, and was rewarded with a spot in the main draw as a lucky loser, when several top stars withdrew from the event.

His ATP main draw debut was confirmed, as he took to the court against home Wild Card Mate Valkusz in the first round.

Valkusz himself was yet to win a match on the ATP Tour, so the stakes were high as the pair faced off in Budapest.

After an unforced error on the first point of the match, Sinner quickly grew in confidence, showing glimpses of the player we know so well today.

The Italian stormed into a 5-0 lead in the first set, before Valkusz held serve and grabbed a break, narrowing the deficit to 5-2.

At the second time of asking, Sinner served out the set, putting himself on the brink of a first tour-level win.

The pressure began to creep up on Sinner in the second, however, as his Hungarian opponent took control, winning the set 6-0.

Six years later, Valkusz remains one of just seven players to have handed Sinner a ‘bagel’ [a 6-0 set].

The third set was the most competitive, as Sinner and Valkusz battled it out before the Italian grabbed a late break to secure his first-ever ATP Tour win, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.

At 17 years of age, Sinner had secured win one of 270, as he advanced to the last 16 in Budapest.

It was there that his run came to an end against Serbia’s Laslo Djere in straight sets, but he had already made his mark and went on to win a further ten matches that year.

For Valkusz, he still had some time to wait before notching his first win, as he did not play another main draw match until 2023.

After receiving the same luck as Sinner did four years earlier, Valkusz entered the main draw of the Metz ATP 250 event as a lucky loser, where he took on German star Daniel Altmaier in the first round.

Dropping just four games, the Hungarian finally secured his first ATP Tour win at 25 years old.

In 2024, Valkusz qualified for the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career, advancing through three rounds of qualifying at the Australian Open.

In his only match at a Major tournament to date, he lost to home favorite Max Purcell in four sets, 6-3, 6-7, 4-6, 5-7.

After missing large parts of the 2024 season, Valkusz returned at a futures event in Spain earlier this month losing in the first round, and is currently ranked outside of the world’s top 1000.

Which Italian player won the 2019 Hungarian Open?

Italian tennis may have seen a new star born in Budapest six years ago, but at the time many thought the tournament’s champion was the nation’s greatest hope.

Matteo Berrettini won his second ATP title at the Hungarian Open, as his stock continued to rise in men’s tennis.

The now 28-year-old dropped just two sets all tournament as he lifted the trophy with a win over Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic.

Later that same year, Berrettini reached the semi-finals of the US Open, before achieving his best result to date at Wimbledon in 2021, when he lost to Djokovic in the final.

Injuries hampered the Italian’s progress, as Sinner quickly became the country’s top star in his absence.

The pair did however, work together to help Italy win their third Davis Cup in 2024, with the duo coming through a tough doubles tie in the quarter-finals, on their way to the title.

Berrettini is set to return to action in Rotterdam next week, while Sinner prepares for the Qatar Open, which begins on February 17.

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