Tennis legend Jimmy Connors believes US Open champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka have developed a “fear factor” after their latest Grand Slam triumphs.

ATP world No 1 Sinner defeated home favourite Taylor Fritz in the men’s singles final at Flushing Meadows, securing his second major title after winning the Australian Open back in January.

Sabalenka also completed the hard-court Slam double by beating an American star, the world No 2 downing Jessica Pegula to win her first US Open, and third major overall.

The Belarusian has now reached the final of both the Australian and US Opens in the past two years, winning three of those four finals, alongside being ranked world No 1 for eight weeks.

Meanwhile, Sinner has now won six titles in 2024 alone – not losing a single final – and has a 4,000-point cushion at the top of the ATP Rankings.

Speaking on his podcast, eight-time Slam singles champion Connors believes the two have built a formidable aura.

“Jannik Sinner and Sabalenka now have a fear factor, other players fear them,” said Connors.

“That means they will start winning matches before they even step on the court. Confidence is: ‘I will play against you for five hours if necessary, no matter what it takes, you have to find a way to beat me because I will not beat myself’.

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“To me, that is what great players work for. They have the game, the mentality and everything it takes to win matches, but they have that little something extra that makes their opponent know they have to kill them to beat them.

“That is something special and I think both Sinner and Sabalenka have that now. It is really special.”

Having cemented their place as the leading hard court players on the ATP and WTA respectively, all eyes will be on how the Italian and Belarusian fare throughout the rest of 2024.

Sinner’s likely main targets will be the ATP Finals, on home turf in Turin, and helping Italy defend the Davis Cup title, which they won for the first time in 47 years in 2023.

However, he will also look to defend his China Open title and win his first Shanghai Masters.

Sabalenka will next be in action at the China Open, a WTA 1000-level event on the WTA Tour.

That will then be followed by the return of the Wuhan Open, which she won in the last two stagings back in 2018 and 2019, and finally the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

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