Roger Federer has claimed that it would be “unfair” if he faced Jannik Sinner on the match court after the world No. 3 established himself as one of the tour’s best players. Sinner has lost just one match this year, winning back-to-back titles at the Australian Open and Rotterdam. Federer never got to play Sinner before he retired 18 months ago.
Following years of dominance from Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, tennis fans were left questioning who would carry the sport when the Big Three eventually faded away. But the latest crop of young stars have stepped up, with Sinner among an exciting group of players currently at the top of the game.
The 22-year-old had been tipped for success since he was a teenager and has come into his own over the last few months – winning his first Masters title in Canada, reaching a career-high of world No. 3 and lifting his maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open. Since last year’s US Open, Sinner is 36-3 in matches and started this year by winning his first 16 in a row.
During that run, he beat Djokovic three times. But the world No. 3 never got to test himself against another one of the sport’s greats, Federer. The retired Swiss star has been keeping up with the Australian Open champion’s impressive rise but he didn’t think it would be right to take Sinner on in an official match.
“Well right now it would be not fair. He would be the big champion,” Federer said of the 12-time title winner. “Me, I would be chasing the balls.” Although the former world No. 1 thought he had no hope against Sinner now, he was still happy to cheer him on from the sidelines.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion added: “So he’s doing amazing and I’m very, very happy for him. What he did in Australia was incredible.” Federer has been full of praise for Sinner of late, as he recently tipped the world No. 3 and Carlos Alcaraz to become the next guys to dominate at the biggest tournaments.
“Somebody has to win Slams and naturally they’re going to win them nicely and do it perfectly and they’re going to be the ones carrying the game and become the superstars of our sports, which some are already announcing themselves to do: Alcaraz, Sinner, and so forth,” the 42-year-old told GQ.
“And there’s a lot of momentum right now also to see who’s going to be the next guy. So I think the next two to three years, they’re going to give us a really good idea because I think there are good players right now, but I still think they are recalibrating their game to understand: Okay, how can I beat the best in the business on their best surface?”
