The most accomplished active men’s tennis players seeking their first major title in 2025

The 2010s were a tough time for Grand Slam breakthroughs on the men’s tour—there were only three first-time major winners the entire decade, namely Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic.

But there have already been four in the 2020s, and we’re only four years in—Dominic Thiem, Daniil Medvedev and more recently Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have all picked up their first majors.

So will we see another first-time Grand Slam champion in 2025?

If so, just like yesterday with the women, we have a list of suspects as to who it might be—the three most accomplished active men’s players yet to capture their first Grand Slam title.

Each one of these three players has three things on their resume—they’ve all reached at least one Grand Slam final, they’ve made it to the Top 5 on the ATP rankings, and they’ve won at least one “big” title (a Masters 1000, the Olympics or the ATP Finals).

We begin with…

Taylor Fritz

Fritz has achieved one of the above criteria in each of the last three years, capturing his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in 2022, cracking the Top 5 in 2023, and—just a few months ago—reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open. He also reached the ATP Finals final last month and finished the year at a career-high No. 4.

Should the big-hitting Californian win any of the four Grand Slams in 2025, he would become the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick at the US Open in 2003—just by reaching the US Open final this year, he actually became the first American man to reach a major final since Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.

Fun fact: Fritz recorded 11 Top 10 wins this year, the third-most on the men’s tour after Sinner (18) and Alcaraz (12). So if he gets to the business end of any majors next year, watch out…

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Tsitsipas’ resume is heftier, with two Grand Slam finals at Roland Garros in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2023, a career-high of No. 3, and four big titles—he won the ATP Finals in 2019 and he’s won three Masters 1000s, all in Monte Carlo, in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

The Greek was just a set—and later, a few games—away from his first Grand Slam title in Paris three years ago, but ended up falling to Novak Djokovic in a five-set final, 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Despite dipping out of the Top 10 this year for the first time this decade, he only finished the year just outside at No. 11, and he’ll be one to watch particularly in the first two majors of 2025, because...

Fun fact: all eight times Tsitsipas has reached the quarterfinals or better at majors have come at the first two majors of the year, the Australian Open (one final in 2023 and three semifinals in 2019, 2021 and 2022) and Roland Garros (one final in 2021, one semifinal in 2020 and two quarterfinals in 2023 and 2024). He’s a combined 50-15 at those two majors, and 15-14 at the other two majors.

Alexander Zverev

And finally, the most accomplished active men’s player yet to win a Grand Slam title, Zverev—and in many ways, he’s one of the most accomplished men’s players yet to win a Grand Slam title ever.

The German's resume is absolutely packed, starting with two career Grand Slam finals at the US Open in 2020 and Roland Garros in 2024, and he barely lost both of those matches—he was two sets and a break up against Thiem in Flushing Meadows four years ago and two sets to one up against Alcaraz in Paris this year.

In 2022, he reached No. 2 for the first time, then—after his ranking took a fall after he missed the entire second half of that year due to the ankle injury he suffered at Roland Garros—he clawed his way back to that career-high in 2024, even finishing the year there.

As for big titles, he’s got all of them, including two ATP Finals titles in 2018 and 2021, the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, and seven Masters 1000 titles (Rome and Canada in 2017, Madrid in 2018, Madrid and Cincinnati in 2021 and Rome and Paris in 2024).

Fun fact: every player who’s won the ATP Finals twice has won at least one major in their career, except for Zverev, so far—so if that pattern holds, the German is due for one at some point…

Honorable Mentions

There are seven more active men's players who have two of the three above criteria, including three current Top 10 players.

Case in point Casper Ruud, who’s currently ranked No. 6. The Norwegian hasn’t won a “big” title, his biggest title to date coming at the ATP 500 event in Barcelona this year, but he’s reached three Grand Slam finals—Roland Garros and the US Open in 2022 and Roland Garros again in 2023—and has made it as high as No. 2 on the ATP rankings. He also reached the ATP Finals final in 2022.

There’s also world No. 8 Andrey Rublev, who’s been ranked as high as No. 5 and has two Masters 1000 titles, at Monte Carlo in 2023 and Madrid in 2024, but has yet to reach a major final—he’s been to 10 major quarterfinals, though (including at least one at each major).

And Grigor Dimitrov, the current world No. 10, is only missing a Grand Slam final—he’s been to three Grand Slam semifinals, though. He also has two big titles, both in 2017—he won his first Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati that year, as well as the ATP Finals. He’s also been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world.

A little further down, No. 13-ranked Holger Rune has a big title (the Masters 1000 event in Paris in 2022) and has been up to No. 4, but his best Grand Slam results so far are three quarterfinals.

And finally, three former top players who’ve been in and out of action over the last few years due to injury, all of whom are just missing a big title. Milos Raonic, a former No. 3 and 2016 Wimbledon finalist, hasn’t played since the summer due to a shoulder injury. Kevin Anderson, a former No. 5 and two-time major finalist at the 2017 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon, came out of retirement in 2023, but hasn’t played in over a year at this point. And Kei Nishikori, a former No. 4 and 2014 US Open finalist, who's had quite the comeback season—he returned from injury in March ranked No. 351 and climbed almost 250 spots in his first eight months back, finishing the year just outside the Top 100 at No. 106.