The curtain is now ready to fall on the 2025 season. The new year is knocking on the doors and, in the great theater of world tennis, the script is already written: Jannik Sinner against Carlos Alcaraz, once again. The Italian and Spanish have monopolized the last two years of the ATP, elevating the match to a generational duel. Both come from an extraordinary season, but a question remains suspended in the air: who really interpreted the season just ended best?
The ranking says Alcaraznumber one in the world. The overall titles – eight against six – and the overall result of the head-to-head matches (4-2) seem to strengthen the thesis. Yet, digging beneath the surface of the numbers, the story changes. Because if the palmarès rewards Carlitos, the quality, continuity and overall impact of the journey indicate Sinner as the most convincing protagonist.
The blue was the only tennis player capable of reaching all the Slam finals of the seasonwinning the Australian Open and Wimbledon, as well as winning the ATP Finals in Turin. An undertaking with historical contours: in the Open Era, only Rod Laver, Roger Federer e Novak Djokovic before him, they had managed to reach the final stage of all four Majors in the same year. A fact that places the Pusterese player in an elite dimension, far beyond the simple accounting of trophies.
In the so-called Big Titles, the events that really matter (Slam+ATP Finals), Sinner has left his mark three timesagainst the two statements from the Spaniard. But it is in the continuity of performance that the real difference emerges. The blue ended the year with a higher winning percentage (90.63% versus 88.75%), without ever encountering an elimination on his debut. A detail that is anything but marginal, if we consider that Alcaraz stumbled twice in the first round, in Miami against David Goffin and in 1000 of Paris against Cameron Norrie.
Numbers never seen before also certify the completeness of his tennis. Sinner has in fact become the first player in the history of the ATP to lead, in the same season, both rankings relating to the percentage of games won on serve and return, a statistic that the official ATP website has been monitoring since 1991. In the 64 matches played, the South Tyrolean champion kept the innings in 713 games out of 775, demonstrating almost unassailable solidity. The return performance is also extraordinary, with a break obtained on average in almost one game out of three: data that tells of a dominance built on balance, aggression and total control of the exchange.
No Major, Jannik collected 26 hits, two more than the Iberian, with the same number of defeats, with a richer haul also in terms of semi-finals and finals (four against three). The class of 2001 has thus achieved more strong results on the stages that count and is balanced in the seasonal head-to-head matches (2-2): London and Turin speak Italian, Paris and New York smile at Alcaraz.
However, the Spaniard made his mark in the Masters 1000winning three against Sinner’s only one and also surpassing him in Rome and Cincinnati. Results which, however, deserve an asterisk: at the Italian Internationals the Italian was returning after three months of stoppage linked to the “Clostebol” affair, while in Ohio the match ended with a withdrawal due to a flu condition.
Stains that remain in the balance sheet, but which do not change the substance of the discussion. The two travel up very close tracks, but in terms of continuity Sinner offered greater guarantees. Best win/loss ratio, fight for the top of the ranking continued until the end, despite a forced absence which prevented him from four Masters 1000, equal to 4,000 potential points.
The final gap of just 550 points is not a detail: it is the most faithful photograph of a season played on the edge and of the authoritarian pace with which Sinner crossed 2025. Numbers, records and sensations converge in the same direction. The duel remains wide open, but if tennis is also memory and vision, this year the story speaks blue.
Related News :