Jannik Sinner: 3 Historic Things He Can Achieve After Returning From Ban
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is officially back on the ATP Tour seeking further history. The Italian was suspended for three months due to a doping scandal. However, his ban has officially ended on May 4 2025. Now, as he is eligible to play professional tennis again, he is set to make his return at the Rome Masters.
Sinner will be in action in multiple tournaments before Roland Garros, as he also has the Hamburg event on his calendar. The 23-year-old wants to remove all the rust from his game to prepare for the French Open. However, there are many more things that he can achieve in the 2025 season. We boil down three things he can achieve this year after his return.
1. The Wimbledon Dream
Initially in his career, Sinner had developed a reputation for being a grass-court specialist. His quick ground strokes proved fundamental on that surface. The signs were there when he led Novak Djokovic by two sets to love in the Wimbledon 2022 quarterfinals. Then, he made his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon in 2023, again losing to the Serb.
However, the dominance he has displayed on the hard court since 2024 has made all of us forget how good he can be on the lawns. In Wimbledon last year, Sinner lost in the quarterfinals to Daniil Medvedev. However, he was battling physical problems and potentially having nightmare situations in his head regarding the doping scandal that was set to surface in a couple of months.
With the doping scandal now behind him, he can look forward to bringing his dominance on the grass courts and winning his first Wimbledon title. He has the Halle Open to defend this season, which can tune him up for SW19.
2. First US Open Title Defense In 17 years
No one has defended the US Open title since 2008, when Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray to win his fifth consecutive title at Flushing Meadows. Despite Djokovic’s dominance on hard courts, the Serb has never been able to defend the title once. He is a four-time champion at the event, winning titles in 2011, 2015, 2018, and 2023. Last year, he lost in the third round to Alexei Popyrin as the defending champion.
Now, the spotlight falls on Sinner. The Italian has not lost a hard-court Grand Slam match since the 2023 US Open. Despite coming from a three-month break, he is still the man to beat on hard courts. Considering how fragile the field is around him, the Italian has the perfect chance to end this streak and join Federer in a historic club.
3. Successive Year-End World No. 1 finishes
In this century, only two players have finished successive seasons with the World No. 1 ranking: Federer and Djokovic. Rafael Nadal managed to finish the season as the World No. 1 on five occasions, but never once did it happen in successive seasons. The Spaniard finished at the top of the ATP rankings in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017, and 2019.
Sinner has a great chance of joining Federer and Djokovic. The big issue here is that the Italian has a bunch of points to defend, especially after Wimbledon. The 23-year-old is the defending US Open champion and ATP Finals champion. Moreover, he has Masters 1000 titles at Cincinnati and Shanghai to defend as well. Hence, Sinner has his work cut out for him if he wants to accomplish this milestone.
