Jannik Sinner currently rules over the Australian Open with an iron fist. The Italian sensation has romped to glory in Melbourne in each of the last two years, and his quest for a three-peat in 2026 is off to the perfect start. The reigning champion has already made light work of both Hugo Gaston and home favourite James Duckworth, dispatching both in straight sets as he looks to power his way to yet another final. Can anyone stop him?
Carlos Alcaraz, as ever, remains the best bet. The Spanish superstar beat Sinner in the US Open final back in September, snapping his Italian rival’s streak of hard-court Grand Slam triumphs at three. However, he has never made it past the quarterfinals in Melbourne, despite winning each of the other three slams on the calendar multiple times over. Can he end that curse in 2026? A new betting outlet will be covering it every step of the way.
Ozoon sports betting website is poised to launch in the near future, and the upstart outlet will be covering tennis in immense detail. The new outlet will have all of the most popular markets available, including futures betting, so punters are able to back who they think will win the tournament and follow every serve and swing. But what stories will Ozoon be covering throughout the Slams in 2026?
Predicting the future is a somewhat challenging endeavour, but we can always look to the past for pointers and potential chinks in the armour of reigning champions. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at the last time each of the four reigning Grand Slam champions lost at their respective tournaments.
Australian Open: The Ghost of Tsitsipas
It’s been over three years since Jannik Sinner last lost at the Australian Open. Back in 2023, the then-21-year-old Italian was still a grand slam virgin, waiting for his maiden triumph. He had powered his way up the rankings and headed to Melbourne in January 2023 as the 15th seed, with a comeback win over Márton Fucsovics in the third round legitimising him as a potential contender. Then, Stefanos Tsitsipas arrived.
The two young guns faced off in the fourth round and played out a brutal five-set war. The Greek superstar looked unstoppable through the first two sets, his one-handed backhand slicing angles that left Sinner lunging at shadows. Then the kid clawed back, winning the third and fourth with the kind of relentless baseline power that has gone on to become his signature. The crowd sensed an upset brewing, but Tsitsipas had other plans. He broke serve in the sixth game of the decider and held firm, closing out the match with a blistering forehand winner that kissed the line.
Sinner absorbed that loss differently than most 21-year-olds would. He didn’t make excuses or talk about learning experiences. He vanished into the gym and emerged the next January as a different player—faster on defence, more patient in rallies, ruthless on short balls. He has since won 16 straight matches Down Under, a run that has led him to two titles. A third could well be on the way in 2026.
French Open: The Djokovic Clinic
Carlos Alcaraz looked poised to inherit the throne left by compatriot Rafael Nadal at the 2023 French Open. The young prodigy dropped just one set en route to the semifinals, and his final-four clash against Novak Djokovic was poised to be the generational clash everyone wanted. And it started that way.
The 36-year-old GOAT versus the 20-year-old heir apparent trading ridiculous winners on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Djokovic took the first set methodically, saving all four break points he faced. Alcaraz roared back in the second with the kind of shotmaking that defies science, breaking serve twice to level the match. Then the young prodigy’s legs betrayed him.
Cramping seized Alcaraz’s hamstrings at the start of the third set, and the match turned from competitive to cruel. He couldn’t move laterally, couldn’t push off his back foot, couldn’t defend. Djokovic, being Djokovic, showed zero mercy—winning 12 of the final 13 games to close out a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory in three hours and 23 minutes. The Serbian would capture a record 23rd major title two days later.
But here’s what separates great players from champions: Alcaraz didn’t just recover from that nightmare. He weaponised it. He returned to Roland Garros in 2024 and won the whole damn thing, before defending his crown in 2025 by beating Sinner in one of the greatest matches of all time. He will aim to follow in Nadal’s footsteps in 2026 by claiming a third straight crown.
Wimbledon: Medvedev’s Masterpiece
Daniil Medvedev snapped a five-match losing streak against Sinner at the worst possible time for the Italian—the 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinals. The Russian’s game plan was brutally simple: refuse to miss. Despite being a huge underdog, he planted himself two feet behind the baseline and turned rallies into wars of attrition, forcing Sinner to generate his own pace on a surface that already neutralises power.
Sinner would eke out the first set in a tie break, but Medvedev came roaring back to life, claiming the second before winning a tie break of his own to go 2-1 up. Sinner demolished him in the fourth set, winning 85 per cent of first-serve points and converting both break chances to force a decider. But Medvedev held firm in the fifth, breaking serve at 4-3 and closing out his first Top 5 victory of the season.
The loss stung differently than Melbourne had. While he was dumped out, rival Alcaraz would go on to claim his second straight title at SW19, beating Djokovic in the final for the second straight year. But when the Italian returned to Centre Court in 2025, he was ready. He beat two-time defending champion Alcaraz in four sets to claim his maiden Wimbledon crown, following the blueprint that Medvedev had shown him 12 months prior.
US Open: The Van de Zandschulp Massacre
Botic van de Zandschulp demolished Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the 2024 US Open, and it wasn’t competitive. The 74th-ranked Dutchman pounded forehands at 132 mph and watched the defending champion miss routine shots he executes in his sleep. The opening set was embarrassing—Alcaraz registered zero winners while van de Zandschulp played like he’d nothing to lose because, well, he didn’t.
The humiliation could’ve broken a lesser player. Instead, Alcaraz returned to Flushing Meadows in 2025 with a target on his back and fire in his eyes. Navigated through the draw to meet defending champion Sinner in the final, the same guy who’d owned hard court Slams for the last two years. This time, Alcaraz delivered when it mattered, beating Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to capture his second US Open title and sixth major overall, reclaiming top spot in the world rankings in the process.
