Jannik Sinner could be set to miss the Asian swing according to reports from Italy.
Former Italian player Stefano Pescosolido, who currently works as an analyst for Sky Sports Italia, has suggested that Sinner could miss the Asian swing altogether.
“There are two options: Beijing and Shanghai, or starting with the indoor tournaments,” said Pescolido. “Last year’s Chinese ATP Masters 1000 tournament saw some tricky conditions, and he withdrew due to cramp.
“He might skip the Asian leg and return via Vienna, to be ready for the ATP Finals, in order to plan for the following year as effectively as possible.”
Sinner is currently set to be the top seed at the China Open, where he will also be the defending champion, and he would absolutely be expected to lift the trophy if he played the tournament, even though he is coming in with an injury.
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Should he withdraw from the event, Alexander Zverev will become the top seed at the ATP 500 tournament and, thus, the heavy favourite to lift the title.
Zverev has done a very good job of capitalising on top star’s withdrawals to win the major events this year.
He won a Roland Garros which didn’t feature Carlos Alcaraz and he followed it up by winning a Sinner-less US Open to become a two-time Grand Slam champion.
Zverev will not only get a very good chance of winning the China Open either, if Sinner withdraws. He will also be able to gain ground on his Italian rival on the race to become world No 1.
Sinner will loss 500 ranking points if he doesn’t play the China Open, while Zverev is only defending 60 ranking points having reached the quarterfinals in 2025.
The likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur, Novak Djokovic, and Jakub Mensik are also set to play the China Open, but the German has proved he can beat the best of the rest already in 2026.
Zverev has never won the China Open in his career, so if he does lift the title he will achieve another first time feat in his career.
The German has reached the semifinals of the competition on three occasions in his career, but he has never managed to go any further.
He was beaten by Nick Kyrgios at the 2017 tournament, Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2019, Medvedev knocked him out of the final four in the 2023 season.
Should Sinner withdraw from the 2026 event, there is a huge chance he will oust the rest of the ATP Tour and become a China Open champion for the very first time in his career.
