"Show some respect to Novak Djokovic" "You have no shame": Fans irked by French Open's premature celebration of Jannik Sinner's 1st win as World No. 1

Jannik Sinner will overtake World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the rankings to be updated on Monday, June 10, following the Serb's withdrawal from the 2024 French Open. The Serb injured his right knee while playing against Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round.

Djokovic pulled out of his quarterfinal clash with Casper Ruud with a medial meniscus tear in the right knee. It meant he dropped 1,600 ranking points as the defending champion to confirm his fall to the second spot.

Sinner, on the other hand, defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, June 4, with the help of eight aces and four break points. With the win, he notably bettered his best performance at Roland Garros from 2020 when he reached the quarterfinals.

The French Open took to X (formerly Twitter) and dubbed it the Italian's first win as the World No. 1.

This notably irked tennis fans who shamed the tournament for incorrectly declaring Sinner the top-ranked player despite the Serb holding the pole position till Sunday, June 9.

"The truth is that he is not WORLD NO.1 until next Monday. Please show some respect to NO.1 NOVAK DJOKOVIC," a fan wrote.

"You have no shame," wrote another.

Here are a few more reactions from X:

"He's only no.1 on Monday. But he finds out today thanks to your scheduling and poor court treatment," a fan wrote.

"Roland Garros what you did to Novak helped Sinner gain the no 1. You even crowned him no 1 before Novak finished his match. You have achieved what you set out to do i.e. dethrone Novak. Despicable and unethical," a fan remarked.

"Wow, really?! You can’t wait till Monday? Show some respect please," a fan commented.

"No, he will be world no.1 only starting from June 10 and only after that he will be able to win as the world no.1," a fan wrote.

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Novak Djokovic relinquishes top spot after 39 consecutive weeks, Jannik Sinner to become 29th World No. 1 men's singles player

Jannik Sinner; Getty

Novak Djokovic notably climbed to the World No. 1 spot on September 11, 2023, right after clinching the US Open championship. He overtook Spain's Carlos Alcaraz who sat in the top spot for 11 consecutive weeks.

The Serb is currently in his 39th straight week as the top-ranked men's singles player since his ascent in September 2023. However, he won't be adding any more weeks to his streak as Jannik Sinner is set to become the 29th man in tennis history to become the World No. 1.

It all began with Romania's Ilie Nastase on August 23, 1973, being crowned the first-ever World No. 1. After Nastase, 27 men, including Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Rafael Nadal, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi, and Lleyton Hewitt, have taken turns to rule men's tennis.

Novak Djokovic notably leads the men's all-time tally of spending most weeks, 428, as the top-ranked player.