How Does Jannik Sinner's Dominance Rival the Big Three?
by Sam Cox | by Tyler Doty
Jannik Sinner’s success in Rome saw him become only the second player in history to win every ATP 1000 Masters event. He’s done so at 24 years old. The previous player to achieve the feat, Novak Djokovic, had to wait until he was 31 to complete the set.
This is a run of dominance that has seen Sinner win the first five Masters events in 2026. He’s won 29 matches in a row. Defeating everyone before him, the Italian is doing things that Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer never achieved.
Roland Garros is up next. It’s the only Grand Slam that has eluded Sinner thus far. If he wins it, he will be the third-youngest player to complete the Career Grand Slam.
French Open Chances
Sinner will head to the French Open as the clearest favorite since Rafael Nadal was at his peak and will be widely tipped in tennis picks. Carlos Alcaraz is sidelined for the tournament, and the Spaniard has been the only player capable of even making Sinner break a sweat over the last couple of years.
Alcaraz and Sinner played an all-time final in the French Open last year. Alcaraz fought back from the brink to win in dramatic fashion, and the Spaniard got the better of Sinner in the final of the 2025 Italian Open.
With Alcaraz on the sidelines, it’s hard to see how anyone can even come close to challenging Sinner. He’s blown Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud away in the final of the last two Masters clay-court events and mixed in emphatic wins over Andrey Rublev and Arthur Fils.
History Maker
Sinner obviously doesn’t have the aggregate stats of Federer, Djokovic, or Nadal, but he’s already putting his name alongside the Big Three in the record books. There are several feats Sinner has achieved that none of the Big Three did.
Italian great Adriano Panatta believes the only record that’s truly out of reach for Sinner is Nadal’s 14 French Opens. Everything else feels very much in play with how the 24-year-old has been playing.
He’s not lost an ATP Tour final to anyone other than Alcaraz since 2023 and since the start of 2024, he’s reached six out of nine Grand Slam finals and won four of them.
Comparisons with the Big Three
At the same age, Sinner’s 17 Grand Slam, Masters, Tour Finals, and Olympic titles are one ahead of Alcaraz, one behind Djokovic, two behind Federer, and 11 off Nadal’s mark.
Sinner doesn’t have the quality of competition that the Big Three had to deal with. It wasn’t just each other – they had Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, and others playing at a higher level than the current chasing pack.
Every event when Sinner and Alcaraz are healthy feels like they are barrelling towards a showdown in the final. Alcaraz has more slip-ups against other players, though, while the ruthless Sinner barely loses a match to anyone other than Alcaraz.
The extraordinary numbers of Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer are not just about their brilliance. It’s also a testament to their durability – Sinner is still 34 titles shy of Federer’s final mark and 56 off Djokovic’s number.
It will take until 2030 at least for Sinner’s tallies to be close to the Big Three, but in the meantime, he can continue to add to a phenomenal peak. If, or when, he wins the French Open, there is a reasonable conversation to be had about whether this is the highest peak in the history of men’s tennis.
Sinner’s Records
- Youngest player to win every ATP 1000 Masters event
- First player to win first five ATP 1000 events of a season
- First player to win six consecutive ATP 1000 events
- Only player to win 10 consecutive matches in straight sets against opponents in the top-10
- Youngest male player to win two hard-court majors in the same calendar season
- Youngest male player to reach five consecutive Grand Slam tournament finals
- Only player to win consecutive Masters events without dropping a set
- Youngest male player to reach the singles finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single year
