Jannik Sinner told ‘he can win every Grand Slam he plays’ by former ATP star

Pictured: Jannik Sinner and Fabrice Santoro
Jannik Sinner and Fabrice Santoro.

Jannik Sinner “can win every Grand Slam he plays in”, according to former world No 17 and TV pundit Fabrice Santoro.

World No 1 Sinner lifted his third Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open last weekend, defeating Alexander Zverev in straight sets in the final.

The Italian has now claimed back-to-back titles in Melbourne, defeating Daniil Medvedev in the final 12 months ago, while he saw off Taylor Fritz in the US Open final last September.

Sinner is one of eight men in the Open Era to win his first three major finals and has cemented his place as the dominant force on hard courts in recent months.

However, he has yet to make the final on either the clay at Roland Garros or the grass at Wimbledon, having fallen at the semi-final stage of both tournaments previously.

Having showcased his hard-court dominance in Melbourne, all eyes are now on whether the 23-year-old can transfer his success to the natural surfaces.

Speaking to L’Equipe, former world No 17 Santoro was asked if Sinner could become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four majors in one season.

While Santoro largely evaded that question, he backed Sinner to be a significant contender at all four majors – and highlighted how close he was to significant success on clay in 2024.

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He said: “I don’t know if he’s going to do the Grand Slam but what I do know is that he can win every Grand Slam he plays in.

“I was already saying that before Roland-Garros last year and he’s made even more progress since then.

“Last year, he lost two matches on clay: the one in Monte-Carlo, where he was robbed – I was in the stands – by a huge refereeing error in the semi-finals.

“He led 4-1, 30-40 in the third set, on the serve of [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, whose second ball went out 20cm but was not called a fault by the line judge and which Sinner did not challenge. Normally it should be 5–1 and he is almost in the final the next day.

“During his second defeat, he leads two sets to one against [Carlos] Alcaraz at Roland Garros [semi-finals] and he is above that too.

“From memory, he misses a very easy smash after a rebound at the beginning of the fourth. If he had beaten Alcaraz, would he have beaten Zverev in the final? I am not sure but in any case he would have been the favourite.”

Sinner’s run to the last four of Roland Garros in 2024 – where he fell to Alcaraz in five sets – was his best result to date at the French Open, having previously reached the last eight on his debut in 2020.

The Italian’s semi-final showing at Wimbledon came back in 2023, falling to Novak Djokovic, though he was also a quarter-finalist in 2022 and 2023 – losing to Djokovic and Medvedev respectively.

Twenty-two of Sinner’s 24 ATP Tour finals have come on hard courts, though he has reached one final on both clay and grass.

He defeated Alcaraz in the final of the 2022 Croatia Open final to lift his sole clay court title to date, while he beat Hubert Hurkacz to lift the Halle Open title on grass courts in June 2024.

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