Djokovic, Nadal and Federer never achieved it. This should have been the year Sinner did

Jannik Sinner’s shock Australian Open semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic in January is even more significant four months later, on the eve of the year’s second grand slam at Roland-Garros.

Italy’s world No.1 arrives in Paris as the hottest of favourites to complete his grand slam trophy set, with a 36-2 record for the year and having won five Masters 1000 tournaments since his last loss in February, including clinching the career Golden Masters.

Djokovic is the only other man to manage that feat of winning all nine ATP Masters 1000 events at least once, and welcomed Sinner to “the exclusive club” with a congratulatory Instagram story.

But just as notable is that Sinner’s great rival, seven-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz, remains sidelined with a debilitating wrist injury, a setback that already caused him to withdraw from Wimbledon as well.

Alcaraz famously rallied from two sets and three consecutive match points down to stun Sinner in a five-set classic in last year’s Roland-Garros men’s final – and has won 10 of their 17 clashes.

With the ever-smiling Spaniard out indefinitely, Sinner is in a strong position to win the next two major titles, and there is no certainty that Alcaraz will return for the US Open, which the languid Italian won two years ago before losing the 2025 final in New York to you know who.

This is why there might be a greater tinge of regret in the Sinner camp, given opportunities to capture a calendar grand slam – winning all four majors in the same year – are so rare.

Not even Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal achieved it. Only Australia’s Rod Laver and Margaret Court and German Steffi Graf have won all four slams in the same season in the Open Era since 1968.

Sinner was bidding in January to become the first man since Djokovic from 2019-21 to win the title at Melbourne Park three straight years before suffering a heartbreaking five-set semi-final defeat to the super Serb.

He failed to convert eight break points early in the deciding set, only to wilt on the one chance he offered Djokovic. Alcaraz went on to win his maiden Australian Open championship, break Nadal’s record as the youngest man to complete a career grand slam and snatch the No.1 ranking off Sinner.

The tennis world has shifted again, including Sinner beating Alcaraz in the Monte Carlo Masters title match last month. Alcaraz pressed pause on his season the next week after winning a match in Barcelona.

Djokovic is on the opposite side of the Roland-Garros draw to Sinner, and will try to outlast the likes of No.2 seed Alexander Zverev, two-time finalist Casper Ruud, American Taylor Fritz, Frenchman Arthur Fils and Australia’s Alex de Minaur to make another final.

Former world No.1 Daniil Medvedev, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Ben Shelton loom as Sinner’s biggest threats at the top of the draw.

The Demon rises

Australia’s top-10 star de Minaur experienced a prolonged form slump after following his Australian Open quarter-final run this year with the Rotterdam title.

De Minaur lost seven of his next 11 matches, including three claycourt losses in a row in Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. That prompted the 27-year-old to accept a late wildcard into this week’s Hamburg Open after Zverev’s withdrawal from the tournament.

De Minaur typically takes the week off before majors, but was keen to recapture some form – and that is precisely what he did.

The world No.9 dropped his opening set of the event to Francisco Cerundolo, and lost the middle set to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, before crushing Rome semi-finalist Luciano Darderi 6-0, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. His run ended in a three-set defeat to American Tommy Paul.

De Minaur starts his Roland-Garros campaign against a qualifier before a series of tricky projected opponents – Alexander Blockx (second round), Jakub Mensik (third round) and Andrey Rublev (fourth round) – who stand in the way of him reaching a second quarter-final in the French capital.

Aleks Vukic, Geneva quarter-finalist Alexei Popyrin, Adam Walton, Rinky Hijikata and Thanasi Kokkinakis, who is using a protected ranking, are Australia’s other representatives in the men’s draw.

Daria Kasatkina, Kim Birrell, Maya Joint, Talia Gibson, Ajla Tomljanovic and teenage wildcard Emerson Jones – who drew four-time champion Iga Swiatek – are the local hopes on the women’s side.

Joint is Australia’s top-ranked woman at No.34, but has lost eight straight matches, which began with her defeat to Tomljanovic in the Adelaide International quarter-finals in January. In-form Austrian 28th seed Anastasia Potapova is Joint’s first-round foe.

Open women’s draw

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka lost relatively early in both her claycourt tune-up tournaments as she prepares to continue her hunt for a maiden Roland-Garros crown.

It promises to be a competitive fortnight, with Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina, four-time titlist Swiatek, defending champion Coco Gauff and in-form pair Elina Svitolina and Jessica Pegula among the other serious contenders.

Svitolina, whose husband Gael Monfils is playing his final French Open in his home country, beat Swiatek, Rybakina and Gauff in consecutive matches to win the Rome title last week. However, in a quirk of fate, she plays her nemesis in the first round, Hungary’s Anna Bondar, who won their past two meetings.

Teenage tyro Mirra Andreeva reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals the past two years in Paris, so she is one to watch as well.

Roland-Garros main draw matches begin on Sunday night (AEST).

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