Jannik Sinner just won the ITF World Champion award for 2025, even though he finished the year ranked No. 2 in the world.
That’s pretty unusual. And when you look at his season, it gets even weirder.
Sinner was banned from tennis for three months because of a previous positive doping test. This meant he couldn’t play a full season and missed several major tournaments.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jannik Sinner | 24 | 15,405 | 33 - 3 |
The Italian started strong by winning the Australian Open. But then things got complicated.
His first tournament back was the Italian Open in Rome, where he lost in the final to Carlos Alcaraz. Then Alcaraz beat him again in the Roland Garros final.
Sinner also lost early at the Halle Open to Alexander Bublik. Not exactly the kind of streak you’d expect from a future world champion.
But then something clicked. Sinner won Wimbledon for his second major of the season.
That turned out to be his last Grand Slam of the year, though. Alcaraz got revenge by beating him in the US Open final. Weeks earlier, Sinner had to retire from their Cincinnati Open final.
The Italian won the China Open but was forced to retire again during his third-round match at the Shanghai Masters against Tallon Griekspoor.
That was his last loss of the season.
Sinner finished 2025 by winning the Vienna Open, Paris Masters, and ATP Finals back-to-back-to-back. It was probably those late-season heroics that secured him the ITF World Champion award, despite losing four out of six matches to Alcaraz during the year.
Here’s the thing that’s got fans scratching their heads: Alcaraz won the same number of Grand Slam trophies, two more ATP 500 titles, two more ATP Masters 1000 titles, and finished as world No. 1.
Still didn’t win the award. Pretty shocking to a lot of people.
Though it’s not the first time the world No. 1 hasn’t received the ITF World Champion award, it’s still unusual.
Aryna Sabalenka wins the 2025 ITF World Champion award
Aryna Sabalenka was awarded the 2025 ITF World Champion award for women’s singles. Unlike the men’s side, there wasn’t much doubt about who deserved this one.
Sabalenka was clearly the best player on the women’s tour this year.
She won four titles, finished as world No. 1, and reached three major finals, winning one of them.
The doubles winners were pretty straightforward too. Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos got the men’s doubles award, while Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini were recognized as the best women’s doubles team.
In wheelchair tennis, Yui Kamiji received the women’s award, Tokito Oda won for men’s wheelchair tennis, and Niels Vink took the quad wheelchair tennis honor.
The junior categories went to Ivan Ivanov for boys’ singles and Kristina Penickova for girls’ singles.
It’ll be interesting to see if Sinner can put together a full, healthy season next year. With his late-season form, he could be pretty dangerous if he stays on court for the whole year.
