Sinner ends his 2026 season for knee treatment and leaves the No. 1 race to Zverev

Jannik Sinner will not play another match in 2026. The world No. 1 said on Tuesday, 6 October, that he and his doctors had decided on a course of treatment for his right knee, and that the season was over. He has not competed since he beat Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon final on 12 July.

His team said the treatment is for inflammation in the knee, and that it is being done now so he has time to recover before preparations for 2027. He had already withdrawn from the Shanghai Masters. The new decision also removes him from the Paris Masters, the ATP Finals in Turin, and the Davis Cup Final 8, where he would have played for Italy as host and as a three-time defending champion.

In a video posted on social media he said the last couple of years, especially the ending in Turin, had given him many feelings, and that this year would be different. He said he needed to think about his long-term career, and that he would do everything possible to get back to full fitness. He is 25.

The points he cannot defend

Sinner leads the live rankings. Zverev is second, 1,280 points behind, and has won the French Open and the US Open this year. Sinner cannot defend the points he took at the end of 2025 in China, Vienna, Paris and the ATP Finals, which he won in each of the last two years. The BBC's reading of that gap is that Zverev is all but certain to be No. 1 by the end of the year if the rest of the calendar runs without Sinner.

That is a ranking outcome, not a medical one. The medical fact is inflammation in the right knee and a decision to treat it across the close of the season rather than play through the indoor swing. The ranking fact is a 1,280-point lead that shrinks when undefended titles come off the board.

What he had already done in 2026

Before the knee stopped him, Sinner had won 44 singles matches and lost three. He lost only one singles match between March and July. Against the top 10 his record was 10-1, the loss coming against Novak Djokovic in five sets in the Australian Open semi-final in Melbourne. He went out of the French Open in the second round to Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He beat Carlos Alcaraz in the Monte Carlo final. Between March and May he won five Masters 1000 titles in a row and became the youngest man to complete the career Golden Masters. He won six titles in 2026, on all three surfaces, and he defended Wimbledon, beating Zverev in the final after a five-set first round.

The last of those wins is the date the layoff starts from. 12 July, Centre Court, Zverev in the final. Nothing competitive after that. The North American hard-court swing, the US Open and the Asian autumn all passed without him. Tuesday's announcement adds the European indoor swing and the season-ending events in Turin.

What the calendar still holds for everyone else

The ATP Finals are in Turin, Sinner's home event, and he has won them twice. Italy is also host of the Davis Cup Final 8 and the holder. Both of those stages will now be played without the player who has been the reference point of the year. Zverev, with two major titles in 2026 and a 1,280-point deficit that he does not have to close by winning, is the player the ranking table is waiting on.

A return at the start of 2027 would put the Australian Open, which begins on 17 January, inside his first month back. That is a possible date, not a confirmed one. His team has said the treatment is meant to leave him ready to prepare for 2027. It has not named a first tournament.

The choice he described

Sinner's own line was about the long term. Ending a season in which he was 44-3, with a Wimbledon title and five straight Masters, is a choice to spend the points he cannot defend. The alternative was to play Paris, Turin and the Davis Cup on a knee his doctors have now marked for a course of treatment. He and they picked the treatment.

The public record of the decision is short. A video on 6 October. A team statement naming inflammation. A last match on 12 July. A 1,280-point lead over a rival who has won the other two majors of the year. The season that began with a five-set loss to Djokovic in Melbourne ends, for him, in October, without another ball.