Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner is set to make his post-Grand Slam appearance at the Rotterdam Open, aiming to break the first-time Grand Slam champion curse. Historically, since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001, no first-time major winner has secured an ATP title immediately after their Grand Slam triumph.
Sinner, victorious in Melbourne, hopes to avoid the fate that befell 16 predecessors. Notably, Carlos Alcaraz, after his 2022 US Open win, lost in the Davis Cup and his first ATP Tour match. Similarly, Juan Martin del Potro, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, and Albert Costa faced setbacks in their immediate post-Grand Slam tournaments.
The trend continued with other champions like Thomas Johansson, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer, Gaston Gaudio, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, and Daniil Medvedev, who won subsequent matches but couldn’t clinch titles.
Federer, for instance, reached the Gstaad final in 2003 but lost to Jiri Novak. Meanwhile, Murray’s Wimbledon victory in 2013 was followed by a Canadian Open win, but he fell in the next round against Ernests Gulbis. The pattern persisted with Wawrinka, Cilic, Thiem, and Medvedev, who faced challenges in their immediate post-Grand Slam tournaments.
Sinner aims to defy this trend at the Rotterdam Open, seeking to carve a different path for newly crowned champions in the ATP Tour. The question remains: Can he be the one to break the curse and secure victory immediately after his Grand Slam success? Tennis enthusiasts eagerly await the outcome in Rotterdam from February 12-18.