{"id":2246,"date":"2026-05-27T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:00:47","slug":"tim-henmans-clear-verdict-on-whether-prime-roger-federer-and-rafael-nadal-would-beat-jannik-sinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2246","title":{"rendered":"Tim Henman\u2019s clear verdict on whether prime Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would beat Jannik Sinner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been hailed for taking tennis to a whole next level over the last couple of years, but former British No 1 Tim Henman has suggested some of the eulogies are misplaced.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/jannik-sinner\">Sinner<\/a> and Alcaraz have won the last nine Grand Slam titles between them and have clearly started their own era of dominance in men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n<p>That has inspired some respected observers to suggest the new \u2018Big 2\u2019 after better than the two of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who have a remarkable 66 Grand Slam titles between them in their record-breaking careers.<\/p>\n<p>However, Henman believes that rushing to judgment is premature, as he insisted we can\u2019t say Sinner or Alcaraz are comparable to players who achieved sustained success over almost two decades.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking exclusively to Tennis365 in his role as an analyst for <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/tennis\/how-to-watch-2026-french-open-tnt-sports-hbo-max-clay-court_sto23286748\/story.shtml\">TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a>, who will broadcast every match at Roland Garros to a British audience this year, Henman argued the time to place Sinner in the game\u2019s Hall of Fame is many years away.<\/p>\n<h2>More Tennis News<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/john-mcenroe-jannik-sinner-french-open\">French Open: John McEnroe tries to come up with one player who can beat Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/alexander-zverev-praised-for-doing-something-the-same-as-jannik-sinner\">Alexander Zverev claimed to be making changes to his game that is just like Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRafa (Nadal) at his best against Sinner on clay? I\u2019m taking Rafa,\u201d Henman told Tennis365.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the same with Roger on grass. At this moment in time, I take prime Federer against Sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henman went on to suggest Grigor Dimitrov\u2019s performance against Sinner at Wimbledon last summer, when he was close to victory until he was halted by an injury, was evidence that the world No 1 can be troubled by an inspired opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Sinner is the red-hot favourite to win the Roland Garros title for the first time and complete his collection of all four Grand Slam titles, but Henman argues he can be beaten.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou only have to think back to what Dimotrov did to Sinner on grass last summer, with a bit of variation and that sliced backend and looking to finish points of the net.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo Sinner and Alcaraz are amazing and it\u2019s brilliant to watch, but I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not getting ahead of myself compared to the other three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henman also spoke to Tennis365 about the suggestion that Sinner\u2019s complete control of the men\u2019s game was \u2018boring\u2019 as he added: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t agree with it,\u201d declared Henman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what Sinner is doing is absolutely phenomenal. From a physical, mental and technical point of view, he\u2019s gone to the next level. We\u2019ve always known he was a great player, but to be able to play with this type of consistency against the best players in the world and just dominate is absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Alcaraz out heading into Roland Garros, it really is Sinner against the field. And if you offered me both, I\u2019d take Sinner every day of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/alexander-zverev-explains-why-he-still-believes-carlos-alcaraz-is-a-step-behind-jannik-sinner\">Alexander Zverev explains why he still believes Carlos Alcaraz is a \u2018step behind\u2019 Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/tim-henman-jannik-sinner-roger-federer-rafael-nadal-rating\">Tim Henman\u2019s clear verdict on whether prime Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would beat Jannik Sinner<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/\">Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been hailed for taking tennis to a whole next level over the last couple of years, but former British No 1 Tim Henman has suggested some of the eulogies are misplaced. Sinner and Alcaraz have won the last nine Grand Slam titles between them and have clearly started their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}