John Isner names the ATP player who’s had the third-best season outside of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz

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Men’s tennis is emerging into another golden era led by, for now, a two-horse race at the top of the ATP Tour.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have been head and shoulders above every other player in 2025, finishing with enormous ATP point tallies of 12,050 and 11,500, respectively.

The two clinched a combined 14 tour-level titles and split all four major crowns between them for the second year in a row.

Several players have attempted to close the gap on them in 2025, and some have managed to trouble Sinner and Alcaraz on the biggest stages.

There is one star, however, whom John Isner thinks has been much closer to the level of the ‘new two’ than anyone else this year.

John Isner picks the third-best player on the ATP Tour in 2025

When discussing who had the third-best season on the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast, former American player Jack Sock said: “I’m going to go with Felix [Auger-Aliassime].

“Finishing at your career high ranking, making it to the year-end finals for the first time, playing at the level he did to close out the year.

“I don’t know what it is about him in general, where like, sometimes I just don’t think he’s maybe consistently at that high, high level, but then you look back at his year, and it was incredible, and he finished five in the world.

“So yeah, I’m going to go with Felix and hopefully he can back it up and keep going and keep playing like this going into next year’s seasons after a good pre-season.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime won three ATP titles in 2025, and finished the season with a career-high ranking of world number five.

Isner disagreed, however, stating: “I’m gonna say Novak had the best year. He made the semifinals of all four slams at 38 years old. I think the answer is Novak, and I think it’s a pretty easy answer.”

Novak Djokovic advanced to the final four at all four Grand Slam events this year, but was denied in his pursuit of a 25th major title each time.

• Australian Open: Retired due to injury in his semifinal with Alexander Zverev
• Roland Garros: Lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinal
• Wimbledon: Lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinal
• US Open: Lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal

The Serb also claimed two more titles in his campaign to bring his tally up to 101, eight less than Jimmy Connors’ all-time record of 109.

Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson agree on the third-best player

Responding to Sock and Isner, Steve Johnson then claimed: “Ben Shelton had the third-best year.

“He finished 2024 as number 21 in the world. Still kind of an unknown, but had some really good results in big tournaments.

“In 2025, he finished the year top 10 in the world, got a Masters 1000 title, which is not easy to come by, and then if he could stop losing to these four guys, these are the ones that are confusing.

“I would say it’s a great year minus these four guys: 0-2 against [David] Goffin, 0-2 against [Jakub] Mensik, 0-3 against [Jaume] Munar, and 0-2 against [Alejandro] Davidovich Fokina.

“If you can just take away those losses, it’s a phenomenal year. I think he had the third-best year. He’s continually rising in the rankings, and he’s getting better.”

Sam Querrey added: “Mine is also Ben Shelton. I 100% agree with Stevie. He steps up at the majors.

Ben Shelton made two deep runs at Grand Slams this year, reaching the semifinals in Melbourne and the quarterfinals in London.

“At the US Open, aside from Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic, it felt as if Shelton was the next biggest draw that fans wanted to watch.

“His stardom from the beginning of the season grew all over the world. He was headlining night matches everywhere. Stevie gave the stats, I’m just going on feels. Ben Shelton, for me, had the third-best year.”

Shelton claimed a maiden Masters title at the Canadian Open, and finished the season ranked ninth.