Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner are one step closer to successfully defending their Melbourne Park crowns after their semifinal triumphs at Australian Open 2025.
Sabalenka and Sinner are seeking to become the first pair in history to simultaneously win three consecutive hard-court Grand Slams, a feat that will cement the legendary status of both players.
As for separate hard-court major three-peats, the current world No.1’s would become part of an esteemed list of tennis legends. Sabalenka can join Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis in her division. Meanwhile, Sinner would join only Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer as the only men to achieve this feat.
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Success this weekend would also put the pair within one major of their biggest rivals, Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz respectively.
They’re rivalries that, unfortunately, have yet to see the light of a Grand Slam final.
Aryna, Iga, Jannik and Carlos – all of which fans have begun to refer to on a first-name basis like the legends before them – have assumed dominance in the current era of tennis. The quartet would also improve their collective Grand Slam final record to 16-1 if Sabalenka and Sinner prevail.
The two highest-ranked women’s players – Sabalenka and Poland’s Swiatek – were one point away from their rivalry’s biggest stage yet. Swiatek was at her scintillating best throughout Australian Open 2025, but squandered a match point in her semifinal loss to American Madison Keys on Thursday.
Although the pair have faced off at a major, much has changed since their US Open 2022 semifinal encounter.
Sabalenka led 4-2 in the final set before the Polish youngster won the next four games to ultimately win her maiden US Open crown. Sabalenka, ranked world No.6 at the time, has since dominated the hard courts, the 26-year-old reaching all five major finals on the surface in that time.
As for the men’s equivalent, few would have expected two teenage wildcards at an Alicante Challenger in 2019 to script arguably the most intriguing modern-day rivalries. The rivalry between Sinner and Alcaraz – also known as ‘Sincaraz’ – is the perfect spin-off to the excitement produced by the ‘Big Three’.
“On the ATP Tour for a few years now, we were thinking ‘who’s going to come after these four giants of the game that dominated our sport?’ and the one thing they’ve been is unbelievable ambassadors for our game and they’ve taken the game to new levels,” Lleyton Hewitt said at the AO 2025 launch.
“Probably four or five years ago, there was these couple of kids playing on the Challenger circuit that occasionally would play in the quarterfinals or the semifinals. You’d actually go on YouTube and you watch some of the matches and you think ‘this tennis is pretty bloody good’, and it was Sinner and Alcaraz playing against each other.
“They’re going to be the leaders of our sport for so many years to come, and I think the men’s game, particularly with those two guys, is in a really good space.”
Their rivalry features chapters at three of the four majors, Masters 1000 tournaments, and ATP Tour finals. However, a major final still looms.
Australian Open 2025 provided arguably the best opportunity for the two to meet for a Grand Slam crown. Alcaraz, like Swiatek, was in stellar form throughout the tournament, although he would succumb to a vintage performance from Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.
The loss might deny fans of a dream ‘Sincaraz’ final, though Sinner’s victory over Ben Shelton on Friday night continues the pair’s stranglehold on the men’s Grand Slam deciders.
Sinner or Alcaraz have reached five of the past six major finals, a run which includes a combined Golden Slam in 2024 where the Italian’s hard-court triumphs bookended Alcaraz’s successes at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
This weekend in Melbourne, Sabalenka and Sinner have the opportunity to continue the form of a foursome that is challenging the accomplishments of past generations.
3 - For the fourth time in tennis history, three players (Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka) have won multiple Grand Slam Singles titles in the same season after 1964, 1967 and 1982. Trio.@atptour @WTA @AustralianOpen @rolandgarros @Wimbledon @usopen pic.twitter.com/wb4s3NnKzg
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) September 13, 2024