Is Jannik Sinner men’s tennis’ next shining light? Premium

Italian Jannik Sinner's meteoric rise in 2023, with 13 wins against top-10 players, has sparked hope for a new era in men's tennis.

The near-total domination of men’s tennis by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic for close to two decades has had two unfortunate fallouts.

Multiple generations of accomplished players, from Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to Tomas Berdych to David Ferrer to Kei Nishikori to Kevin Anderson, have all been judged against immeasurably high standards before being deemed inadequate and also-rans.

Even those who won Grand Slam tournaments, like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic and Juan Martin Del Potro, have been given the short shrift, for they didn’t reach double-digit figures, and only grudgingly been admitted into the sport’s elite.

At the same time, the unparalleled consistent excellence of the Big Three has bred a certain kind of boredom. Though they are still immensely popular and universally loved, tennis fans have been desperate for new heroes to emerge. So much so that the sport and its followers have been all too eager to arrange a hurried coronation only for the king in waiting to not look the part.

In recent times, Carlos Alcaraz has bucked the trend, notching up two Majors in quick succession, including Wimbledon 2023 with a sensational five-set triumph in the final over Djokovic. There is now heightened hope that Italian Jannik Sinner, already up to No. 4 in the world, will be the next shining light.

The prime driver of this conversation is the run the 22-year-old went on during the fall of 2023. Sinner won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 trophy in Toronto, added titles in Beijing and Vienna (both ATP 500s), finished a worthy runner-up to Djokovic at the ATP Finals at home in Turin and led Italy to its first Davis Cup triumph since 1976.

Over a three-month period after the US Open, he beat Alcaraz once, Djokovic twice and Daniil Medvedev thrice. The pulsating three-set victory over Djokovic in the ATP Finals’ round-robin stage, in fact, snapped the Serb’s 19-match winning streak on the Tour stretching back to the Cincinnati Masters.