Jannik Sinner
World No. 2, age 22
2024 record: 28-2, three titles including Australian Open and Miami Masters (only losses to Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz).
52-week record: 65-11, 6-1 in finals, including ATP Finals and Canada Masters
It was very deep into an epic, second-round, five-set struggle last year at Roland Garros between Sinner and No. 79 Daniel Altmaier, and the match was driving Arias nuts. Calling the action for the Tennis Channel, Jimmy Arias was stunned at the inability of highly-touted newcomer Jannik Sinner to get away from his color-by-numbers game, to open up the court.
“Altmaier was just back at the fence running, and pushing for five sets,” Arias recalled. “Sinner was unloading ground strokes as hard as he could, but he wasn’t able to take Altmaier outside the doubles lines at all.”
A lot has changed in the roughly 12 months since then, with Sinner emerging as the undisputed leader of the ATP pack. Few players who broke through as early as Sinner also improved as much following their breakouts.
Annacone doesn’t believe Sinner is ready to dominate quite yet, but he heaped praise on the player’s mental fitness. “He’s got an unbelievably good champion’s mentality. He has great composure. He doesn’t get too high or too low, but he competes his ass off. He’s one of these quietly ultra-competitive guys, and he seems to deal with winning and losing equally well.”
The advances Sinner made in his game since last fall are highly visible. He’s improved his transition game and willingness to end points at the net. His power baseline game has more variety, more hue and color, than it did as little as 12 months ago. While lean, he’s grown stronger—and it shows.
“If you watch him coming out of the corners,” Annacone said, “his strength and the ability to dig out from defending and to turn his position into offense has gotten way better.”
On top of all that, Sinner’s first serve has more pop (thanks partly to a readjusted stance) and he has shored up a once-vulnerable second serve. Sinner took a huge leap in the crucial second-serve winning percentage department. Ranked 15th on tour in 2022, he leads the field this year with a winning percentage of 59.23% (Alcaraz is fourth, Djokovic ranks sixth).
In style, if not temperament, Sinner is a kindred spirit with Djokovic.
“He’s able to cover the court while crushing every ball, and not having to back up much,” Arias said. “Even when he’s defending, it’s from closer in than most players because he’s in balance. And once he gets hold of a ground stroke, whether it’s a forehand or a backhand, you’re getting pushed around.”
Another way he’s like Djokovic, according to Arias: “It’s not so much that he’s amazing, he just feels methodically great.”
