A huge coincidence or a symbol of greatness? Sinner’s triumph at the Australian Open repeated the legendary Federer’s feat to a tee

A new generation of tennis players is making a strong claim at the top of the ATP rankings. One of them is Jannik Sinner. The Italian follows his generational rival Alcaraz. Sinner’s rise is very reminiscent of Roger Federer in his early days. In what ways has the Italian emulated the legendary Swiss?

Roger Federer

Federer first appeared on the ATP circuit in the 1998 season. He lost in the first round at his home tournament in Gstaad, but a year later he had already broken into the elite 100 of the ATP rankings.

In 2001, Federer reached a ranking among the top 15 tennis players. At the age of nineteen he was competing with the likes of Sampras and Henman, but his biggest breakthrough was to come two years later.

The year was 2003, and the late five-time Sportsman of the Year made his first appearance in golden letters in the history of white sport. After sixteen previous attempts, Federer finally made it through to the final stage of the Grand Slam, and right into the final.

There he defeated Australian Philippoussis in three sets to win the first of his eight triumphs at the All England Club. He followed up on the victory of another youngster from the previous year. That was Lleyton Hewitt. Also an important person for this story.

The Australian was a great competitor of the Swiss in the early days and by the time Federer won his maiden major title at his seventeenth major, Hewitt already had two. Remember those numbers.

Jannik Sinner

Fast forward twenty years. The Italian Sinner has been considered one of the greatest promises in world tennis since last year. And rightly so.

His form has been building and he wowed the home crowd at the 2023 Tournament of Champions. He fell just short of repeating his win against Djokovic for the prestigious title. The South Tyrolean native did not repeat what he did in the group stage in the final.

Nevertheless, he worked his way up to the position of one of the most promising players on the circuit and proved it to the full at the first Grand Slam of the year. He reached the final of the Australian Open with a single set to spare. Along the way, he beat world number one Djokovic and turned the match against Medvedev into a title match.

And the young Italian has just won the 17th Grand Slam of his career. Just like Federer twenty-one years earlier. And the similarities don’t end there. Sinner is also seemingly one step behind his generational rival. We’re talking about Spain’s Alcaraz, who already has two grand slams in his pocket.

Sinner is therefore, like Federer once was, catching up with his great rival in an identical situation of his career. Will he surpass him in the future as clearly as Federer did Hewitt?

In conclusion..

Clearly, Alcaraz is not Hewitt and Sinner is not Federer. But we certainly can’t dismiss the comparison of Sinner and Federer’s performances as mere coincidence. Sinner’s future progression will certainly be interesting to watch.

Source: ATP