2026 ATP and WTA Season Preview and Predictions

CincinnatiOpen.com breaks out the crystal ball in an attempt to predict the unpredictable. An early look ahead at 2026.

By Richard Osborn | 7 min read

The sports world has always been fertile ground for a good prediction.  

Babe Ruth famously called his shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, making good on his promise when he deposited a threadbare baseball in the Wrigley Field bleachers. A cocksure and mutton-chopped Joe Namath correctly forecasted Super Bowl III in favor of his underdog New York Jets: “We’re gonna win the game. I guarantee it.” Mark Messier, mile-wide smile in place, erased the so-called Curse of 1940 when he pledged a win for his title-starved Rangers during the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs. And who could forget Richard Williams and his seemingly outlandish declaration that his Compton-raised daughters, Venus and Serena, would one day occupy Nos. 1 and 2 in the WTA Tour rankings, an unprecedented feat they would indeed accomplish in 2002?  

If we’ve learned anything in tennis though, it’s that, more often than not, you never really know what’s going to happen out there on the court; that, Nostradamus be damned, anything can happen in this sport. (See unheralded Terence Atmane’s semifinal run at the 2025 Cincinnati Open, or the out-of-the-blue all-cousin Rolex Shanghai Masters final between Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech.) But that won’t stop us from prophesying, from taking a stab at forecasting a few of the top stories for 2026:   

If they can stay healthy, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will continue to set the standard on the ATP Tour. 

Together, they have accounted for two years’ worth of Grand Slam titles, monopolizing tennis’ four majors and the Nitto ATP Finals in ’24 and ‘25. As we saw with Borg vs. McEnroe and Sampras vs. Agassi, with the intragroup tussle between the Big Three, tennis is at its best when elite rivalries emerge. Alcaraz and Sinner continue to push each other (and the sport) to new heights. Each will be chasing the coveted career Grand Slam in 2026. Having wrestled the year-end No. 1 ranking from his nemesis, Alcaraz, at 22 the second-youngest man to win six Slams in the Open Era behind only Bjorn Borg, is an Australian Open title away from the achievement, though Sinner has owned that event two years running. His out-of-the-blue split with coach-mentor Juan Carlos Ferrero, the man who had been by his side since his junior days and only weeks ago was named ATP Coach of the Year, caught many of us off guard. The shakeup could bring with it some unsettling reverberations, but the 2025 Cincinnati Open winner appears ready to move forward with Samuel Lopez at the helm. (That being said, don’t be surprised if there’s a mid-season reunion.) 

Sinner, meanwhile, needs the Coupe des Mousquetaires to complete his collection of the sport’s four biggest trophies. He infamously squandered three championship points against Alcaraz on Court Philippe Chatrier last year. The Italian will look to put those memories behind him for good in 2026. Like Alcaraz, it looked as if Sinner would head into the new year without his longtime co-coach, but managed (via a bet) to convince Darren Cahill to commit to one more go-round. The status of their teams aside, Alcaraz and Sinner are still the ones to beat.    

Aryna Sabalenka will remain the premier power presence on the WTA Tour, but big hitters like Amanda Anisimova and Elena Rybakina will continue to make her life more difficult. 

Sabalenka doesn’t need Battle of the Sexes bragging rights to justify her position in tennis. The 27-year-old baseliner, a two-time champion in both Melbourne and Flushing Meadows, now stands side by side with Hall of Famers like Clijsters, Sanchez Vicario and Mandlikova. However, as we witnessed in 2025, her pursuers are doing their darnedest to close the gap. Anisimova, 24, improved to 6-5 versus Sabalenka in ‘25, cutting short the year-end No. 1’s stay at Wimbledon en route to her first major final. Cincinnatians will remember the 26-year-old Rybakina’s 6-1, 6-4 quarterfinal upset of the defending champion Sabalenka at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, and the Kazakh also prevailed, 6-3, 7-6(0), in the title match at the WTA Finals. It looked as if Sabalenka might go Slam-less for the first time since 2022 until she managed to hold off Anisimova, 6-3, 7-6(3), at the US Open. Despite the aforementioned setbacks, Sabalenka — ranked atop the WTA charts for 64 consecutive weeks — is playing with more confidence, more authority than ever. And that’s a good thing. She’ll need that outlook going forward. 

Ben Shelton will reach a Grand Slam final (and maybe even win it).

Before an untimely shoulder setback led to his third-round retirement at the US Open, the former collegiate standout was playing the best tennis of his career in 2025. Between Wimbledon and Cincinnati, Shelton would win 16 of 19 matches, a prodigious stretch that included his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto — at 22 the youngest American to win at that level since Andy Roddick took the Miami Open more than two decades earlier. By the time he touched down in Queens, New York, the lefthander was among the not-so-darkhorse favorites, right up there with the likes of Alcaraz and Sinner. But the injury would cost him a month and his momentum, though he underlined that he wouldn’t be caught “pouting about how bad things are with the summer that I’ve had, the things that I’ve been able to do in this sport in a short amount of time.” Once again healthy, soccer superstar Trinity Rodman’s significant other will be on the short list of picks at the Australian Open, where last year he reached the final four.                   

Coco Gauff is only going to get better. 

There were double faults. There were nerves. There were tears. But Coco Gauff still managed to close out 2025 as the No. 3 ranked player in the world, her second major singles title (Roland Garros) in hand. Credit the American’s jarring athleticism and ahead-of-her-years maturity. We sometimes forget just how young Gauff is: 21. As the pressure continues to mount, she’s learning to rise above the expectations, both from others and from herself. Blessed with a strong support system, including parents and former D1 athletes Candi and Corey, she’s quite comfortable in her own skin. Yes, she’ll continue to look to her coach, Jean Christophe Faurel, and biomechanics guru Gavin MacMillan to sharpen her serve, but when it comes down to it, the 2023 Cincinnati Open titlist is her own best troubleshooter. The answers will likely come from within.      

Joao Fonseca is no flash in the pan (but his sophomore season will present its own challenges). 

The boundless, borderless hype surrounding Fonseca, a 19-year-old whiz kid raised but a stone’s throw from the Jockey Club Brasileiro, site of the ATP 500 Rio Open, harkens the fanfare that followed Hall of Fame enshrine-to-be Roger Federer early in his career. That kind of ballyhoo can be a distraction for a newcomer just trying to get their footing on the ATP Tour. But the amiable Fonseca is handling it all with aplomb. He appears to be a grounded talent with a mind to match that explosive forehand and all-court vision. In his first-ever encounter with a Top-10 opponent in his first-ever main-draw appearance at a Grand Slam, the Brazilian stunned Andrey Rublev, 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-6(5), in the opening round of the 2025 Australian Open. His maiden tour-level titles would follow in Buenos Aires and Basel, and he would also help lead Team World to the title in his Laver Cup debut. As so often happens with teen breakouts in this sport, his opponents will inevitably make adjustments now that they’ve seen his game up close. There will be the occasional frustrating loss in 2026. His body will be tested, too, something we’ve already seen in the lower back injury that led to his pullout at the Brisbane International. The real test will be how this superstar-on-the-rise deals with these challenges in the new year.                

Iga Swiatek will double down in ‘26. 

There’s nothing like a Wimbledon title to put you at ease. That was surely the case for Swiatek, who by raising the Venus Rosewater Dish on Centre Court last year upped her major trophy count to six. Like ATP Tour counterpart Carlos Alcaraz needing only an Australian Open title to complete the career Grand Slam, she allowed herself some latitude when it came to staying in the moment. The Pole said as much on her way to the 2025 Cincinnati Open title: “Winning Wimbledon is a thing that is going to be with you the rest of your life. I let myself be happy a little bit longer.” But don’t think the bookish baseliner is going soft. Only 24, her prime years still lay ahead, and she appears as title-hungry as ever. Under the guidance of her coach, Wim Fissette, Swiatek has re-tooled her serve, committing to a flatter offering from the baseline, in her own words, being “more brave”. That willingness to tweak her arsenal has not only resulted in more free points (her ace count jumped to a career-high 243 in 2025), it shows she’s willing to push beyond her comfort zone.