The sport Jannik Sinner played before becoming a champion tennis player

Finishing the year ranked number two in the world behind his great rival, Carlos Alcaraz, there’s plenty for Sinner to look forward to in 2026.

However, he very nearly chose to play a different sport from tennis, having enjoyed success as a junior…

Jannik Sinner said he was winning ‘a lot’ in skiing as a youngster

During an interview with Vogue in 2024, Sinner reflected on his success in skiing during his younger years.

“I was winning a lot when I was young in skiing, and in tennis, I never won,” he said.

“And then slowly I started to lose in skiing, because physically I was not ready to compete.

“I was always quite skinny and everything.”

The Italian then shared another reason why he chose to pursue tennis over skiing.

“The reason why I chose tennis was, in tennis you can make mistakes,” he said.

“You can lose points, but you can still win the match.

“In skiing, if you make one mistake, one big mistake, you cannot win.”

Sinner may prefer tennis as you can ‘lose points’, although that’s not something he’s had to deal with too often this year…

Despite his struggles against Alcaraz, Sinner dominated for large parts of the year, winning six titles in total.

Four of which came across the last few months of 2025.

Jannik Sinner’s end-of-year dominance

Just as he did in 2023 and 2024, Sinner showed his class at the end of the year.

After losing the US Open final to Alcaraz, Sinner returned to tennis at the China Open in Beijing.

With Alcaraz competing over in Tokyo, the 24-year-old had a clear path to the title, and he made no mistake.

Taking down the impressive young American Learner Tien in the final, Sinner reclaimed the China Open title, which he last won two years earlier.

Heading over to Shanghai, Sinner suffered his final defeat of the 2025 season, retiring due to injury against Tallon Griekspoor in the third round.

Bouncing back in Vienna, he beat his fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli, Alexander Bublik, Alex de Minaur, and Alexander Zverev en route to the title.

Carrying that form through to the Paris Masters, Sinner picked up his first Masters 1000 title of the season, taking his overall tally to five.

Returning home, Sinner continued to impress, defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime, Zverev, Ben Shelton, and De Minaur in straight sets to qualify for the ATP Finals championship match.

There, he met Alcaraz once more, as the pair contested their sixth final of the season.

This time, it was Sinner who emerged victorious, winning in straight sets, 7-6, 7-5, to defend his ATP Finals crown.

After losing the US Open final to Alcaraz, Sinner won 21 of the 22 matches he played.

Heading into 2026, no one else will be feeling as confident as the man from Italy…