The 2025 tennis season was dominated by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. However for the preliminary months, when the fallout from Sinner’s twin doping violations in 2024 grabbed headlines, the remainder of the time was spent marvelling on the duo’s extra-terrestrial high quality of play. Here’s a take a look at how ‘Sincaraz’ formed the boys’s recreation, why Aryna Sabalenka spent the entire 12 months at No. 1 and what Italian tennis completed, amongst different salient developments this season:
Swift-rising cream and Djokovic’s final dance
Because the period of the Huge Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — wound to an in depth, followers had been left questioning what males’s tennis would appear like. Many felt that it will be up and down, about two years of intense jostling earlier than the subsequent creamy layer rose to the highest.
However Alcaraz and Sinner have ensured one of the seamless transitions ever witnessed. The 2 have swept the final eight Majors, and, remarkably, met in every of the final three Slam finals.
The season has additionally added new dimensions to their rivalry. Alcaraz, thought of the higher participant on the pure surfaces, almost misplaced his French Open crown to Sinner and was dethroned at Wimbledon by the Italian. However on the US Open, the Spaniard beat Sinner handsomely regardless of hard-courts being thought of the latter’s most well-liked turf.
Sinner did defeat Alcaraz to win the year-ending ATP Finals, however they’ve now unlocked areas within the match-up that hitherto appeared non-existent. Such has their excellence been that the legendary Djokovic, 38, has needed to play a relatively unfamiliar third-act. The Serb reached the semifinals in any respect 4 Majors, received profession titles No. 100 and 101, and ended the 12 months at No. 4. However three of his 4 defeats on the Slams in 2025 got here in opposition to Alcaraz or Sinner. Does the 24-time Main winner have the power at this grand outdated tennis age for one final dance?
Sabalenka: all 12 months, all surfaces
For the second straight 12 months, Sabalenka was named the WTA Participant of the Yr.
In 2023 and 24, she was the standout athlete, successful three Slams, reaching a closing and two semifinals from seven appearances. However this season, although she received only one Main, she elevated her play additional. Her maiden Roland-Garros closing proved that she was greater than only a hard-court star. By making a 3rd straight semifinal on the All England Membership in three visits, Sabalenka let the world know that she was adept on grass too.
Ascension: Aryna Sabalenka had a powerful 2023 and 2024, successful three Slams. Though she claimed only one Main this 12 months, the World No. 1 discovered a better stage.
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To a level, the capricious finals she misplaced to Madison Keys (Australian Open) and Coco Gauff (French Open) known as into query her psychological make-up. However a brittle thoughts doesn’t win a single-season-record 22 tie-breaks (88% success charge). In 2026, the Belarusian could even see the rekindling of her generational rivalry with Iga Swiatek, who went out of her consolation zone to clinch her first Wimbledon title.
The endless season
That the tennis low season is shrinking is now not unsure. Gamers have repeatedly stated that the calendar was bursting on the seams.
However the issue is a operate of the dysfunctional state of tennis governance. There are seven governing our bodies — the Worldwide Tennis Federation (ITF), ATP, WTA and the 4 Majors — and every has a match to promote.
Other than the common Tour, there may be the United Cup, the Laver Cup, and legacy tournaments within the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup. Three of the 4 Slams now stretch throughout three weekends and nearly all Masters 1000 tournaments have ballooned to 10-day affairs from their snappy week-long earlier variations. It doesn’t assist that eight of the 9 Masters are necessary, and from 2028, Saudi Arabia will host a tenth.
Gamers, too, are removed from innocent, for they’re completely satisfied to earn the large bucks at exhibitions just like the Six Kings Slam. In 2025, the four-day occasion in Riyadh assured the winner $6 million, greater than the prize cash at any Grand Slam. One thing’s obtained to offer. When and the place?
Forza Italia!
In current occasions, no nation has had it higher than Italy. It has two males within the top-10 in Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti, and eight within the top-100. Amongst girls, Jasmine Paolini has persistently stayed within the top-10. Such is the energy and depth that 2025 noticed Italy successful a 3rd straight Davis Cup and second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup.
Italy has additionally been internet hosting the ATP Finals since 2021, and was the house of the Subsequent Gen ATP Finals from 2017 to 2022. This pedigree has been acquired meticulously. For instance, in 2019, Italy hosted as many as 18 Challengers, and supplemented by first-rate teaching growth programmes, the house boys received eight of these. A younger Sinner secured two, and in a matter of 12 months, the lanky teen had risen from exterior the top-750 to No. 78. The seeds for present-day success had been maybe sown again then.
Rise of the super-athlete
Tennis gamers have been fairly profitable at turning into endurance athletes. More and more it seems that also they are turning into energy athletes.
The very best instance from the current previous is the 5-hour 29-minute slugfest between Alcaraz and Sinner within the French Open closing. The standard of shot-making, the penetrative strokes from each wings and the facility and energy to execute within the sixth hour of tennis made it breathtaking.
Tennis nation: No nation has had it higher than Italy in current occasions. Such is the energy and depth of Italian expertise that 2025 noticed the boys raise a 3rd straight Davis Cup.
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“You watch how onerous Sinner hits the ball… it’s tough to have that depth each single day,” Sebastian Korda instructed The Hindu just a few months in the past. “All the things’s getting a lot sooner and everybody’s getting so agile and entering into some loopy positions. On grass, you form of used to take these little small steps. However now, everyone seems to be taking part in prefer it’s clay! It’s positively reworking in a method tennis hasn’t actually seen.”
There was perception that the likes of Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, each blessed with nice peak and big wingspans, might match Alcaraz and Sinner. However they appear to be disappearing like automobiles in a rear-view mirror. Can they maintain a candle to ‘Sincaraz’ in 2026?
The India story
There are as many as 5 Indian males within the doubles top-100. However the tennis price of a nation is solely depending on the well being of the singles recreation, and on this, India, sadly, is terminally sick. There’s no one within the top-250, males or girls.
There was the creditable 3-1 away win over Switzerland in a Davis Cup World Group I tie, however aside from Jerome Kym — who was ranked 155 then and is now 188 — the land of Federer and Stan Wawrinka didn’t pose a big problem.
If something, the gulf was seen within the Billie Jean King Cup playoffs in Bengaluru the place the Indian girls misplaced to Slovenia (1-2) and the Netherlands (0-3). With doubles star Rohan Bopanna having retired, even an out of doors shot at Slam success will rely upon World No. 21 Yuki Bhambri.
Printed – December 20, 2025 12:18 am IST
