Earlier this year, Carlos Alcaraz’s peers nicknamed him “Fed05” as a nod to Roger Federer’s immaculate 2005 season, which saw the Swiss go 81-4 to maintain the second-greatest winning percentage (95.3%) in a season.
Perhaps Jannik Sinner should have been given the moniker instead.
On Sunday, the Italian joined Federer (2005) as the only male player in the Open Era to go an entire season without losing a match via straight sets, and the third overall player besides Serena Williams (2013).
The immaculate feat came just a week after he became the first man in 38 years to win the ATP Finals without dropping a set.
Sinner steamrolled his competition at the Davis Cup to power his country to a convincing victory in the World Cup of Tennis. He defeated Sebastian Baez (Argentina) in the quarterfinal, Alex de Minaur (Australia) in the semifinal and Tallon Griekspoor (Netherlands) in the final as Italy became only the sixth nation to go back-to-back as Davis Cup champions, a year after it defeated Australia in the decider.
The string of wins was the ideal way to cap off Sinner’s dominant season. By finishing with a record of 73-6 (92.4%), the World No. 1 joined Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal as the only players to win over 90% of their matches in a season in the 21st century. While Federer did it thrice (2005, 2006 and 2017), Djokovic (2011, 2015) and Nadal (2013, 2018) accomplished the feat on two separate occasions.
After his win on Sunday, Sinner was asked if it felt like he was “living a dream” with his 2024 exploits — eight titles including his first two majors, largest single-event purse and overall prize money earned in a calendar year and first Italian to finish World No. 1 since 1976, etc.
“Yeah, for sure,” Sinner responded. “It’s been an amazing career. Vey, very proud of the whole team — there’s a lot of work behind it. We are very happy to hold this trophy again…It’s a very important competition for Italy. You have different [sort of] pressure and the weight of having Italy on your shoulders. I think we all handled it really well. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t be here.”
While the Italian men prevailed at Malaga, their female counterparts held their end of the bargain by beating Slovakia in the final of the Billie Jean Cup last week. As a result, Italy won the two team-based competitions in the same year for the first time.
Sinner last lost a match to Alcaraz in the finals of the Beijing Open in September. Following that loss, he won 14 consecutive matches to capture the Shanghai Masters, ATP Finals and Davis Cup. In those 14 matches, he was pushed to a deciding third set only once.
It goes without saying that Sinner enters the 2025 Australian Open as the overwhelming favorite to repeat. At this juncture, his opponents can only hope and pray he doesn’t make drastic improvements between seasons like he did between 2023 and 2024.
