Former World No.1 Outlines What ATP Players Must Do to Stop Jannik Sinner From Winning Roland Garros

With Carlos Alcaraz skipping the Roland Garros due to injury, the question has been who can stop Jannik Sinner from winning the clay-court Grand Slam. Sinner has won 51 of his last 53 matches, dating back to October last year. This year, he has won five consecutive ATP Masters 1000 titles.

In the first two months of this season, Sinner struggled to play his best tennis on the court and saw himself lose to Novak Djokovic for the first time in two years. He failed to reach the final of the Australian Open after winning the title in 2024 and 2025. Also, he crashed out in the quarter-finals of the Doha Open in February.

However, things turned around for good for Sinner in March as he completed the Sunshine Double. He then beat Alcaraz in the final to win the Monte Carlo Masters. He easily won the Madrid Open and, on Sunday (May 17), claimed his Career Golden Masters at the Italian Open in Rome.

Since March, Sinner has dropped just three sets, and he’s yet to taste defeat. It is known that the only player who can beat Sinner on any surface, particularly on clay, is Alcaraz. Last year, he defeated the Italian star at the Rome Masters and Roland Garros final. In fact, he leads Sinner 10-7 in their head-to-head record.

As things stand, with Alcaraz not playing the Roland Garros, Sinner is the overwhelming favorite to win the championship. But former World No.1 Mats Wilander believes there’s a way other men’s players can stop him on the court. On Eurosport, he analyzed that the players of other players forced Sinner to pass the third set at the French Open, and he will likely reach his physical limit early:

I think the only thing that can stop Jannik Sinner from winning in Paris is the other 127 players. Somehow, they have to come to an agreement and decide, ‘Even if I’m going to lose this match against Jannik, I have to push him to his physical limits.’ Because I think the only thing I see with Jannik is that if he strings together three or four really tough matches—we already saw how he struggled in Australia, although the temperatures there are much higher.

The last two times Sinner played a final that went beyond the third set, he failed to win the title. At the US Open last year, he fell to Alcaraz in four sets, and then at the Australian Open in January, Djokovic beat him after five sets. Should he play as two or three five-set or four-set matches at the French Open, he’s likely to collapse physically.

Mats Wilander says players will need a bit of luck to beat Jannik Sinner at the Roland Garros

The last player who tried to push Jannik Sinner hard on the court was Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev swung into action against the Italian star in the semi-final of the Rome Masters, winning the second set 7-5. Sinner struggled physically during the second set as Medvedev made sure that each rally was played longer than Sinner intended.

The more exchanges there were, the less Sinner controlled the game. However, Sinner managed to beat the Russian star 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and eventually won the Rome title after play was postponed. During the aforementioned conversation, Mats Wilander revealed that the only way for Medvedev to beat Sinner at the Roland Garros is if he gets a bit lucky:

So he needs a bit of luck. And I know from experience that at Roland-Garros you need some luck: you have to adapt to the conditions and your opponent. I think those are the only risks for Sinner: that things happen at the wrong time and place and someone manages to push him into a very tough match. Even so, I don’t think they can beat him.

Sinner hates to be pushed hard on the court, which has made him inculcate a rigid style of play. He has dubbed a robotic player on several occasions, but doesn’t care as long as he gets results. He will win several matches in straight sets at the French Open because other players are nowhere near his level.

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