Jannik Sinner passes Andre Agassi for fifth-best Masters 1000 career winning percentage

Jannik Sinner got some revenge against Ben Shelton in the fourth round of Shanghai on Wednesday, defeating the American—who had beaten him in the same round of the same event a year ago—in two tight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (1), to reach the quarterfinals.

The world No. 1 still hasn’t lost before the quarterfinals anywhere this year—this is now his 14th quarterfinal in 14 events played.

And with his latest win, he moved into a very exclusive club.

Sinner now has the fifth-best career winning percentage in Masters 1000 history, since this level of tournament began in 1990, and with a minimum of 50 matches played.

He goes from 74.00% (74-26) to 74.26% (75-26), which pushes him past Andre Agassi’s 74.11% (209-73) and into fifth place.

BEST MASTERS 1000 CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGES (since 1990):
82.06%: Novak Djokovic [407-89]
82.00%: Rafael Nadal [410-90]
77.91%: Roger Federer [381-108]
76.54%: Carlos Alcaraz [62-19]
74.26%: Jannik Sinner [75-26]

Djokovic, Nadal and Federer have the three most career Masters 1000 titles with 40, 36 and 28, respectively. Agassi's next with 17.

Alcaraz has five career Masters 1000 titles, at Miami and Madrid in 2022, Indian Wells and Madrid in 2023 and Indian Wells this year.

Sinner has three career Masters 1000 titles, his first coming in Canada last year and two more this year at Miami and Cincinnati.

It was all about break points on Wednesday, as Sinner converted his only break point of the day—he broke for 5-4 in the first set, then served the set out—while Shelton went 0/7 on break points.

After 12 straight holds in the second set the two went to a tie-break, where, after Shelton won the first point, Sinner reeled off the last seven points in a row to close the match out in straight sets.

Sinner finished the match with twice as many winners as unforced errors, 18 to 9, and Shelton had strong numbers too, with 22 to 17.

Since Shelton won their first career meeting in Shanghai a year ago, Sinner has gone 4-0 against the American and 9-0 in sets, with straight-set wins in Vienna last year and at Indian Wells, Wimbledon and now Shanghai so far this season.

Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Sinner in the quarterfinals will be the winner of the match between No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev and No. 10 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, which finished later in the day.