ATP player who has beaten Jannik Sinner this year shares the key tactic he used against him

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Jannik Sinner has been a dominant force on the ATP Tour in 2025, losing just six matches all year.

Sinner finished his season by winning the ATP Finals, where he beat his biggest rival Carlos Alcaraz in the final.

Alcaraz is one of only three players to beat Sinner in 2025, with four victories over his Italian rival this year.

His two other losses came when Alexander Bublik beat Sinner at the Halle Open, and now Tallon Griekspoor has reflected on his win over the world number two at the Shanghai Masters.

Tallon Griekspoor reveals tactic he used to beat Jannik Sinner

Griekspoor had lost all six of his previous matches against Sinner heading into their seventh meeting at the Shanghai Masters.

It seemed as though it was going to be a seventh straight victory for Sinner, who led by a set and had six break point opportunities in the second.

However, cramp started to affect the Italian, with Griekspoor beating Sinner via retirement when leading the match, 6(3)-7 7-5 3-2.

When speaking in an interview with Tennis Bolshoi at an exhibition event in St. Petersburg, Griekspoor was asked exactly how to beat Sinner.

“I think this is the toughest question in tennis at the moment,” said Griekspoor. “I think that right now Jannik Sinner is the most dominant player. He is incredibly good. He has lost six matches this year, two of which were due to injury.

“I played with him a few times, and you know, it was very close. I have an idea in my head, which many other players do too, but it is very difficult to stick to this tactic for two, three hours, not to mention five sets. And if I want to beat him, it’s basically a three set match, because I think he’s incredible in five sets. Don’t get me wrong he plays great three set matches too.

“I’m someone who’s quite dominant on serve, I go quite big for my serve against him. He’s the best returner in the game at this point…and I have to play pretty hard on the second serve, because if I don’t serve first then the second one is tough and nine times out of 10 when it goes to a long rally I will lose.

“So, I try to play pretty risky within my own limits, sometimes I even go beyond them to beat him and as I said a couple of times I was close to beating him and I let it slip because I went over my limits and he was just picking up and went over me.

“Bublik beat him in Halle, I think Bublik had the perfect game against Sinner on a fast court. You need to be aggressive, you need to get him out of the rhythm, you need to sometimes go a little bit hit and charge against him on return to make him uncomfortable, and every chance you get you need to take it.

“When I beat him in Shanghai, I saved a lot of break points, I was a set down, 4-3 0-40 down, which I saved. Sometimes you need a bit of luck against Jannik, but like I said I played over my limit and you have to hope that he has a little bit of an off day, which he doesn’t have many times.

“But, against me he struggled physically which was in my favour in Shanghai, but like I said I think you need to be extremely aggressive and still it’s a very, very tough thing to do.”

Tallon Griekspoor responds when asked if Jannik Sinner has a weakness

After giving an in-depth answer about his match against Sinner, Griekspoor was asked a follow-up question about whether he thinks the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion has any weaknesses.

Griekspoor initially hesitated before suggesting Sinner’s net game, but he declared that he is expecting that to improve ahead of the 2026 season.

“I don’t think he has…Net play yeah, but he doesn’t do that very often,” answered Griekspoor. “He’s mainly a baseline player and I think when we see him in Australia, Indian Wells, Miami, I think his net play will improve so much, because that’s what we are all focussed on so much right now.”

Sinner has already shown big improvements in 2025, even since the US Open final where he admitted that his serving was not good enough after losing to Alcaraz.

This should be a scary proposition for the rest of the ATP Tour, as Sinner only lost six of his 64 matches this year and appears to only be getting better.