Jannik Sinner was thrilled to see Roger Federer watching his match at the Shanghai Masters.
The Swiss Maestro watched Sinner defeat Tomas Machac to reach his first final at the Masters 1000 event.
He wrapped up a 6-4, 7-5 victory in one hour and 44 minutes to seal the win and in the process secure the year-end number one ranking for the first time.
Sinner will now compete for his seventh title of the season against Novak Djokovic, who defeated Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 to set up their eighth meeting.
What did Jannik Sinner say about Roger Federer?
Sinner was pushed hard by Machac, who stunned Carlos Alcaraz to book his spot in his first Masters 1000 semi-final.
The Italian did a stellar job of withstanding Machac’s relentless baseline game and raised his game at crucial moments to secure victory.
He brought an end to an excellent week for the Czech player who will ascend to a career-high ranking of number 25 on Monday.
At one moment during the contest when a fan yelled “I love Roger”, before Machac shouted back: “What about me?”, which promoted laughter from the crowd and a smile from Sinner.
During his press conference, Sinner expressed his delight with Federer being in attendance at one of his matches.
“Obviously Roger is amazing when he watches some matches, or, he shows his love for this sport, and then how much he gave, obviously, for our tennis.
“It’s amazing to see him around, and just, you know, to see him or talk to him a little bit, so, yeah, it was a very, very nice moment.”
Jannik Sinner will face Novak Djokovic in the Shanghai Masters final
Sinner will take on Djokovic in the Shanghai Masters final, which will be their eighth career meeting.
The last time they faced one another, Sinner ended Djokovic’s winning run at the Australian Open and went on to claim his first Grand Slam title.
Sinner has three of his last four encounters against the Serbian, dating back to the round robin stage of the 2023 ATP Finals.
Djokovic leads the rivalry 4-3 and if he emerges victorious he will claim his 100th ATP title.
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