Jannik Sinner is once again the toast of the tennis world after he retained the Australian Open title that he won last year in Melbourne.
Sinner consoled Alexander Zverev after beating him convincingly in his latest final. There was no repeat of last year’s Australian Open final where Sinner had to come from two sets to love down to oust Daniil Medvedev.
Mats Wilander admitted his disappointment at Zverev after the match. He didn’t put up much of a fight and went down 3-6, 6-7, 3-6 in a final that won’t really live long in the memory of anyone who watched it.
Sinner is proving an immovable object at the moment though. He’s comfortably sitting pretty at the top of the ATP World Rankings and he now has three Grand Slam titles to his name ahead of three more to play in 2025.
Naturally, his dominance has seen some start to mention the big three players. He has some way to go in order to emulate those guys just yet but it hasn’t stopped the talking.
Stevie Johnson thinks Jannik Sinner resembles the big three already
Stevie Johnson enjoyed a sound career as a player and held a ranking of number 21 in the world back in 2016, following a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon – his best-ever SW19 achievement.
After watching Sinner thrash Zverev he believes that the Italian might have a little bit to go in order to emulate the big three but concedes that he’s already adopting a bit of a fear factor among the other players.
He said on the Nothing Major podcast: “It’s scary. It’s hard to compare generations and generational talents but he might be the best mover and striker of a tennis ball combined that I have ever seen.
“He can run 20 or 30 feet side to side, forward, backwards left or right and hit the cr*p out of the ball and never feel like he is in a defensive position where he just has to throw one up to give himself time.
“He always feels like he gets there with enough energy and force to get the ball back. It’s really impressive.
“His aura, his invincibility in these slams, is potentially growing to the point of Rafa, Roger, Novak at these slams, where it is going to take a monumental effort to beat him three out of five.”
Sinner can dominate tennis alongside Carlos Alcaraz
Okay, so Alcaraz was beaten by Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open but last year he shared the Grand Slam titles with Sinner making the pair the two players to beat in these events.
It’s hard to imagine any of the other players in the top 10 – with the exception of Djokovic – going on a run and winning multiple Grand Slam titles.
That is what must be extremely scary for the players chasing their maiden major titles. Sinner and Alcaraz know how to get things won on the grandest stage and that makes them dangerous opponents.
It’s going to be exciting to see if anyone other than Alcaraz or Sinner can win the majors this year but right now it has to be said that the safe money probably edges towards probably not.
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