Jannik Sinner is the Italian Open champion, and the weight of what that means took a moment to land even for him. Beating Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the final to claim the one Masters 1000 title that had eluded him, on home soil, in front of Italian President Sergio Mattarella, produced one of the more endearing moments of his career. Yet despite breaking numerous records, Sinner was in a jovial mood.

“Mr. President, Mr. Mattarella, I’m always very emotional when I meet Mr. Mattarella. I always put myself in awkward situations!” Sinner said, laughing, during the trophy ceremony. He also addressed the crowd with a nod to the last Italian man to win this title. 

“Adriano, after 50 years, we brought a very important trophy home. I can’t say I watched you win it, obviously, because I was too young. I don’t think my parents even were together at the time!” he said, referring to Adriano Panatta, who won the title in 1976.

On Sunday afternoon, Sinner shattered records at the Foro Italico. Sinner is the only second player in history to win all nine of the ATP Masters 1000 events he played, and he did so in 62 fewer main draw appearances than Novak Djokovic. He achieved it at 24, seven years younger than Djokovic was when he completed his own Golden Masters. He also became the first player in history to win the first five Masters events of a single season, going one short of Djokovic’s six in an entire calendar year of 2015. Only Djokovic has won more Masters titles in a single calendar year than Sinner’s five this year.

The numbers on the clay court are even more incredible. Sinner is the second player to capture all three Masters 1000 events on clay in one season since the format was introduced in 1990, trailing only Rafael Nadal, who won all three Masters 1000 events in 2010. He is also the first Italian man to win the Rome title since Panatta half a century ago, only the sixth Italian in tennis history to claim the men’s singles title at the Internazionali d’Italia, and the second in the Open Era. Since losing to Jakub Mensik in Doha three months ago, Sinner has not dropped a match.

Sinner has now gone ahead of Carlos Alcaraz, with 16 Big Titles to his name, including Grand Slams, ATP Finals, Masters 1000 events, and Olympics. The start of the Roland Garros is on May 24. He comes in as the defending finalist, the form player of the season, and the holder of all the records to behold on clay. The next question is, how far does this run go?