Jannik Sinner arrived at Roland Garros as not just the world number one and top seed, but as the man who completed one of tennis’s most extraordinary statistical achievements just days before the tournament began.
With French Open 2026 betting making him the overwhelming favourite to claim the only major title missing from his collection, the 24-year-old headed to Paris having just become only the second player in history to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 events, completing the Career Golden Masters with victory at the Italian Open in Rome on 17 May. What took Novak Djokovic more than a decade to achieve, Sinner did in 33 months.
All of which made his second-round upset by Juan Manuel Cerundolo all the more shocking.
Where it began: Toronto 2023
Sinner first broke through at Masters 1000 level in Toronto in August 2023, when, aged 21, he overcame Alex de Minaur in straight sets to become just the second Italian to win a Masters 1000 title after Fabio Fognini’s Monte-Carlo triumph in 2019. The victory was the starting gun for a period of dominance that has had few parallels in the modern game. At the time, few could have anticipated quite how fast the collection would grow.
The 2024 breakthrough
The Toronto title sparked a run through 2024 in which Sinner rose to world number one for the first time and began adding Masters titles at a rate that demanded comparison with the sport’s all-time greats. After suffering championship-match defeats at Miami in 2021 and 2023, the third time was the charm, beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-1 in the 2024 Miami final. By the end of that year, he had also added Cincinnati and Shanghai, building a collection that covered hard court across multiple continents and demonstrated a versatility that his rivals were struggling to match.
2026: the defining season
The pace at which Sinner completed the set in 2026 was breathtaking. He captured all five Masters 1000 titles available this season, triumphing at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, and Rome. By winning Monte-Carlo, Madrid, and Rome in the same year, he also joined Rafael Nadal as the only players to sweep all three clay-court Masters 1000 events in a single season, a feat Nadal achieved in 2010.
The clay swing was particularly significant given that it was the surface most often cited as a potential weakness earlier in his career. Tennis odds had consistently offered longer prices on Sinner at clay-court events than on hard courts, but his 2026 performances rendered that caution obsolete. He dismantled the opposition at Monte-Carlo, Madrid, and Rome in succession, each title adding to what was becoming an unstoppable momentum.
Rome: completing the set
The Rome final carried its own historical weight beyond the Golden Masters. Sinner became the first Italian man since Adriano Panatta in 1976 to win the title at the Foro Italico, ending a 50-year wait for a home champion at the tournament.
The occasion brought its own pressure: the Italian president Sergio Mattarella and Panatta himself were in attendance, and Sinner dropped serve in his opening service game before settling into his rhythm. He broke back and gained the advantage at 4-4 to take the first set, then secured an early break in the second and cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Casper Ruud.
“I’m really, really happy – it’s been an incredible last two and a half months,” said Sinner. “There has been a lot of tension – especially here in the final. But it’s a learning process. I can’t know everything at 24 years old.”
