Jannik Sinner secured the year-end world No 1 men’s tennis ranking by beating Czech 30th seed Tomas Machac 6-4, 7-5 in the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, capping a year where the Italian has won two grand slam titles.

Machac made a promising start by winning the opening two games before Sinner got on the board, with the top-seed turning the set around before closing it out in 44 minutes as his opponent begun to rack up the errors. Machac stepped back up and provided an even sterner examination in the second set, but Sinner proved too solid for his fellow 23-year-old, making just nine unforced errors as he sealed his 64th win of the year.

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