The world No. 1 confirmed on Saturday that he will not play at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, extending an absence that has already run through Montreal, Cincinnati, the US Open and the ATP 500 in Beijing. Sinner has not hit a competitive ball since beating Zverev in the Wimbledon final in July.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play at the Rolex Shanghai Masters this year as I had hoped,” Sinner wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“I always enjoy playing in front of the Shanghai fans and I’m very sorry that I won’t be able to do so next week.”
The Italian consulted a knee specialist in Lyon on Friday, with his team opting for a conservative recovery over a rushed return to a tournament he last won in 2024. Shanghai runs from 7 to 18 October.
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Zverev inherits the top seed
With Sinner out, the ATP has moved Zverev up to the top of the Shanghai draw. He is the only player in the field within range of the world No. 1 ranking before the end of the year.
Zverev trails Sinner by 1,370 points in the ATP rankings. If the German wins both the China Open in Beijing and the Shanghai Masters, he will take the top spot for the first time in his career, Al Jazeera reports.
In the separate Race to Turin, which only counts calendar-year results, Zverev already leads with 8,750 points to Sinner’s 7,950. The gap is built on the German’s French Open and US Open titles while Sinner was off the tour.
A 44-3 year on pause
Sinner’s season to this point reads like one straight out of the archive: 44 wins, three losses, six titles, and five Masters 1000 crowns in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome. That run completed the Career Golden Masters and sat alongside a successful Wimbledon defense that lifted his major count to five.
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The right knee has kept him off court ever since. His team has prioritized a conservative plan over a quick return, and Beijing had already come off the schedule earlier in the week before Saturday’s confirmation that Shanghai would follow.
Shanghai’s draw still runs deep. Four-time champion Novak Djokovic is in the field alongside Carlos Alcaraz, defending champion Valentin Vacherot, Daniil Medvedev, Ben Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime, per the ATP’s listed entries.
Sinner’s next scheduled ATP event is the Vienna Open, which begins on 26 October.
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