Jannik Sinner has attained the kind of form that makes him appear almost unbeatable as the US Open approaches.
The world No.1 has been dominant almost everywhere of late, but especially on hard courts. He is 12-1 on the surface in 2025, with his only loss occurring through an illness-enforced retirement to Carlos Alcaraz in the Cincinnati Masters final.
His 6-0 6-2 demolition of Felix Auger-Aliassime propelled him into the Cincinnati Masters semifinals, where victory over Terence Atmane extended his hardcourt winning streak to 26 matches.
Only four men this century – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal – have compiled longer streaks.
He will arrive at the US Open as the defending champion and the winner of the past three hardcourt majors.
So who might be able to stop him in New York? We assess the likeliest candidates.
Carlos Alcaraz
Sinner has lost just four matches on hard courts since the beginning of 2024, and three of those losses came to Alcaraz – the latter as the Italian grappled with illness in the Cincinnati final.
The Spaniard leads the head-to-head series against his contemporary (including 6-2 on hard) and won their only previous meeting at the US Open – a quarterfinal thriller in 2022 that was one of the earliest installments of their incredible rivalry.
Alcaraz went on to win the US Open that year – his first of five major titles – and returned to the semifinals in 2023.
Behind Sinner, he holds the best winning percentage on hard courts in 2025, victorious in 21 of his 25 matches for a success rate of almost 82 per cent
Ben Shelton
The American is rounding into form at the perfect time, building his own nine-match winning streak on hard courts after his Masters breakthrough in Canada.
Shelton has won 12 of his past 14 matches on the surface, a run that included a semifinal in Washington DC, the title in Toronto, and a trip to the Cincinnati quarterfinals.
He has surged to a career-high ranking of No.6, helped too by his semifinal run at Australian Open 2025 – where Sinner ultimately stopped him.
It was also Sinner who ended Shelton’s Wimbledon campaign in the quarterfinals, but the big-serving lefty has scored a win on hard courts over the Italian, in Shanghai in 2023.
That triumph came just a month after Shelton advanced to the US Open semifinals, another example of him elevating his game on home soil.
Taylor Fritz
Shelton’s compatriot Fritz is another who owns a hardcourt win over Sinner, which came at Indian Wells in 2021 – a result he almost repeated against Sinner two years later at the same event.
Since then, Fritz has advanced to two huge hardcourt finals – the US Open and ATP Finals deciders of 2024 – where Sinner proved too strong.
Still, Fritz’s hardcourt credentials cannot be denied. The world No.4 has won more matches on the surface than any man this year except Shelton and Alex de Minaur, and last month reached the Canada Masters semifinals – the same stage he reached at the Miami Masters in March.
His impressive 2025 hardcourt record currently stands at 22-9
Jack Draper
The Briton has played far less on hard courts than Shelton or Fritz this year, but when he’s competed, he’s been deadly.
Draper broke through for his first Masters 1000 title this year at Indian Wells, contributing to his sparkling 13-3 hardcourt record in 2025.
His hardcourt winning percentage of 81.25 is among the best on tour this year, and he is expected to arrive in New York fresher than his rivals after skipping Toronto and Cincinnati to heal an arm injury.
Last year’s US Open is where Draper broke through for his first Grand Slam semifinal, where he fell to eventual champion Sinner.
Twelve months on he’s a better player, peaking at world No.4 in June not long after a second Masters final in Madrid.
Alex de Minaur
Sinner has been a bogey opponent for De Minaur, but the Aussie has attained some pretty impressive form on hard courts in recent months.
No man has won more matches on the surface this year than De Minaur, who won the Washington DC 500 title in July.
That result followed De Minaur’s other impressive hardcourt results this year, including his first Australian Open quarterfinal and a finals appearance on indoor hard in Rotterdam.
Last year, De Minaur notched a second quarterfinal finish at the US Open — where Draper stopped him — making Flushing Meadows his most successful Grand Slam venue.
Novak Djokovic
No list would be complete without including the great Novak Djokovic, far and away the game’s best hardcourt player until Sinner assumed that mantle in 2024.
In 2023, Djokovic won both hardcourt majors and had built a 19-match Grand Slam winning streak on hard before Sinner ended that in the AO 2024 semifinals.
Djokovic has played a reduced schedule this year – he is 12-5 in hard courts in 2025 – but remains a force at the majors at 38 years of age, reaching three consecutive semifinals this year.
Sinner stopped him at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but Djokovic arrives in New York fresh after a competitive break and has the experience of 10 US Open finals appearances under his belt.