Jannik Sinner has established himself as the world’s most consistent player over the past 18 months.
The Italian has registered plenty of victories against the world’s best and he has the championship titles to show for it.
A year has passed since Sinner became the World number one and he still maintains a healthy lead atop the rankings despite losing an epic French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz.
He has developed a reputation on court being an explosive yet consistent ball striker who opponents find very difficult to break through, and this has left the likes of former World number one Mats Wilander in awe.
Mats Wilander thinks Jannik Sinner does something better than anyone else in tennis history
Jannik Sinner improved his game exponentially since the end of 2023. He ended that season with a run to the championship match at the ATP Finals and guiding Italy to their first Davis Cup title since 1976, and they defended the trophy the following year.
Since then Sinner has won three Grand Slam titles and the 2024 ATP Finals crown and he established himself as a force to be reckoned with on tour.
Seven-time major winner Mats Wilander thinks that at the heart of Sinner’s success is his game style, which is built on consistency and aggression.
The Swede told Tennis365 that this aspect of the 23-year-old’s game is better than any other player in history, which is a very high form of praise.
“I’ve seen players hit the ball harder than Jannik, but not a guy who hits it this hard and takes it this early,” Wilander said. “Sinner is the real deal, there’s no doubt about it. The combination of taking it early and hitting it that hard is what is so incredible with Sinner.
“It is much more difficult to hit that hard and that consistently when you take it so early. We have seen a lot of guys standing three metres behind the baseline on a clay court and smacking it hard, as they have time to line the ball up and get that connection on it.
“Sinner is not doing that. He is standing up on the baseline, he is hitting the ball so hard and I’ve never seen anyone in my time in tennis who has that combination of hitting the ball so hard and taking it so early.
“You can see the impact it is having on his opponents as they simply don’t have the time to get into position to trade with him.”
Mats Wilander identifies one key area where Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s matches that stand out
Sinner and Alcaraz once again proved why they are the leading players of this new era of men’s tennis following their French Open final.
For five hours and 29 minutes the pair pushed each other to their limit with relentless ball striking and superb shot making at the most pressurszed moments.
Many have described Sunday’s final as one of the greatest of all time, but Wilander noticed an aspect of Alcaraz and Sinner’s matchups and claimed they play at a faster pace than the ’Big 3’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic did.
“It is remarkable the speed both Sinner and Alcaraz are playing the game right now,” Wilander said. “It feels to me like this is another level. It doesn’t mean that they are better than Federer at his best, or Nadal and Djokovic at their best.
“Maybe they make more mistakes, but the game is faster. They make more mistakes than Djokovic and Nadal when they were at their best and that’s why it’s so hard to compare the different eras.
“You need to bring Nadal’s mindset into this discussion. You need to bring in Djokovic’s ability to figure out what is going on and giving what they don’t want. That’s why I like Novak hanging around and trying to test himself against these guys.”
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