Tag: Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a smooth 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday.

The world number one extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has also captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October.

Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against the 169th-ranked Moller.

The Italian broke Moller four times and dropped serve just once late in the opening set to book a last-16 meeting with Cameron Norrie or Thiago Agustin Tirante.

“I tried to stay calm, trying to serve well in the important moments,” Sinner told Tennis TV on court after the win.

“I think today that was the key. And not a lot of rhythm, so I tried to stay quite compact and let’s see what’s coming in the next round.”

Another Italian enjoyed a successful Sunday in the form of Lorenzo Musetti, who overcame Dutch 29th seed Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 7-5.

The sixth-seeded Musetti will face Czech 11th seed Jiri Lehecka for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the day, Coco Gauff became the latest victim of the stomach virus that has been sweeping through the draw in Madrid but the ailing American still found a way to beat Sorana Cirstea 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and reach the round of 16.

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Several players have been struggling with illness in the Spanish capital this week, including Iga Swiatek, who was forced to retire from her match against Ann Li on Saturday, and Marin Cilic, who had to withdraw ahead of his second-round meeting with Joao Fonseca on Friday.

Liudmila Samsonova also pulled out of the tournament on Sunday citing illness ahead of her third-round match with Linda Noskova.

Gauff vomited in a bin on the court during her clash with Cirstea, and asked for a medical timeout during the latter stages of the match before she completed the win in two hours and 21 minutes.

“Yeah, I don’t know, honestly (how I got through that),” said Gauff, who will face Noskova in the last 16.

“I was just trying to finish the match and one point turned into another. I think I got what everybody else is having here in Madrid, unfortunately. So, I’m just going to try to push through for tomorrow.”

A runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in the Spanish capital 12 months ago, Gauff has 3,300 points to defend on clay from Madrid through to her Roland Garros title defence in early June.

“I pulled out in Indian Wells. I’m not someone who likes to pull out, so I didn’t want to pull out again today. So, I’m glad that I was able to get through it,” added the two-time Grand Slam champion.

“I did start to feel better, not feeling like I had to throw up. They gave me some pills, so that definitely helped.

“But I was really tired.”

Fellow American Jessica Pegula was unable to join Gauff in the next round as the fifth seed suffered a 6-1, 6-4 upset at the hands of Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.

Both players entered the contest riding six-match winning streaks, with Kostyuk clinching a title on red clay in Rouen last week and Pegula successfully defending her Charleston title on green clay earlier this month.

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Jannik Sinner took a first step towards a potential record fifth consecutive Masters 1000 title with a 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-4 victory over Benjamin Bonzi in the Madrid Open second round on Friday.

The Italian world number one is looking to beat the record of four consecutive triumphs held by all-time greats Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal this week in the Spanish capital.

Sinner dropped only one set on the way to trophies in Paris, Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo, but Bonzi battled brilliantly to claim the first at the Manolo Santana stadium.

The Frenchman survived five break points to reach a tie-break, where he also saved a set point before edging ahead.

However, Sinner stepped up a gear in the second set, securing breaks in the fourth and sixth games, and another in the third on his way to the third round.

“It was a tough match, I had some chances early on, and I couldn’t use them, but this is tennis,” said four-time Grand Slam winner Sinner.

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“It’s not bad to start the tournament like this, two and a half hours on court, it gives me good feedback on where we need to improve for the next round. Of course, we need to improve, but I’m also happy when you’re not playing your best tennis and win, it’s still a good result.”

With Sinner’s biggest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, injured and unable to compete either this week or in the upcoming French Open, the Italian is the overwhelming favourite for every competition he enters in the weeks ahead.

Earlier, Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic sent world number six Ben Shelton crashing out with a 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5) victory.

Promising 20-year-old Prizmic, ranked 87th, secured his first-ever win over a top-10 player in a three-hour battle in the Spanish capital.

American Shelton triumphed at the Munich Open on Sunday on clay but was unable to force a single break point on Prizmic’s serve.

Italian Lorenzo Musetti, ranked ninth, defeated Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).

READ: Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz to miss French Open

World number two Jannik Sinner of Italy stretched his win streak over fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev to seven matches on Friday, advancing to a Miami Open men’s final against Czech Jiri Lehecka.

The 24-year-old Italian fired 15 aces in beating Germany’s Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) after an hour and 53 minutes — boosting his streak of consecutive sets won at the elite Masters 1000 level to 32.

Sinner is trying to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2017 to complete the “Sunshine Double” by winning titles at Indian Wells and Miami in the same year.

“Standing here again in a final means very much to me,” Sinner said. “We’ll try to push in a couple of days, but in any case, it has been an incredible swing.”

Reigning Wimbledon champion Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam winner, also beat Zverev two weeks ago in the Indian Wells semi-finals and seeks his second Miami crown in three years.

“Coming here, trying to produce some good tennis, that was my main goal,” Sinner said. “Trying to play as many matches as possible. I couldn’t do better. I’m very happy.”

Also attempting a “Sunshine Double” is world number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who defends her Miami crown against American fourth seed Coco Gauff in Saturday’s WTA final.

Lehecka, seeded 21st, dominated 28th-seeded Arthur Fils of France 6-2, 6-2 in the other semi-final at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

Lehecka is winless in three matches against Sinner without taking a set.

“He’s an incredible player,” said Sinner. “He’s going to be for sure more free than me, but I try to control whatever I can control, and the rest we’ll see how it goes.”

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Jannik Sinner blasted a forehand winner to break Alexander Zverev for a 3-1 lead and held from there to capture the first set after 42 minutes on a service winner.

Neither player could manage a break into the second-set tie-breaker, which turned when Zverev sent an overhead smash long to hand Sinner a 5-4 lead.

Zverev, who last beat the Italian in the fourth round at the 2023 US Open, sent a backhand wide on the next point and Sinner settled matters with a service winner, improving to 8-4 all-time against the German.

“Today has been a very tough encounter. He played some incredible tennis,” Sinner said. “I was serving very well, especially in the crucial moments, so I’m very happy.”

Sinner seeks a 26th career ATP title in his 35th career final.

Jiri Lehecka, who has not dropped a set in the event, delivered the Frenchman’s first four broken service games to advance after 75 minutes.

“It feels great. It’s definitely something I’ve been working towards the whole year and the whole pre-season,” Lehecka said.

“I really trusted my game and the work I put in. It didn’t matter when, but I knew it would come, and today was a nice example of how I want to play. I executed it well, so I’m very happy with today’s performance.”

Lehecka will jump past his current career-high ranking of 16th next week. He’s assured of leaping eight spots to 14th and, with a title, would reach 12th.

The 24-year-old seeks his third ATP title after Adelaide in 2024 and Brisbane in 2025. It’s the eighth career final for the Czech but his first in a Masters 1000 event.

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Jannik Sinner powered into the Miami Open quarter-finals on Tuesday, defeating unseeded American Alex Michelsen in straight sets to stay on course for the “Sunshine Double”.

Italian second seed Sinner, who is bidding to follow up his triumph at Indian Wells with victory in Miami, bided his time before completing a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) win in 1hr 41min.

The four-time Grand Slam champion, who will face 19th seed Frances Tiafoe in the last eight, was made to work hard by the 40th-ranked Michelsen.

After a cagey opening, Sinner began to put pressure on Michelsen’s serve in the ninth game of the first set, carving out three break points.

Michelsen rode out that storm, but Sinner finally broke through in the 11th game before serving out for the first set.

Michelsen hit back in the second set, breaking Sinner for a 4-2 lead before holding to go 5-2 up.

Michelsen appeared to struggle with the bright late afternoon sunlight on the Hard Rock Stadium’s main court, and Sinner came roaring back to force a tiebreak.

Sinner sealed the win with a thumping serve that Michelsen could only return wide.

“I feel like I served very well in important moments and that helped me out, especially in the tough moments,” said Sinner, who unfurled 15 aces to Michelsen’s three.

“But today was not easy, I played a night match yesterday and today in the daytime, so the conditions were very different.”

Home hope Tiafoe advanced to his quarter-final date with Sinner after battling past France’s Terence Atmane 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

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Spanish qualifier Martin Landaluce, ranked 151st in the world, upset American 32nd seed Sebastian Korda to score a 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory.

The win marked another impressive victory for the 20-year-old Landaluce, who eliminated Russian 14th seed Karen Khachanov.

Korda, who had beaten world number one Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round, had a match point late in the second set, but Landaluce survived to set up a quarter-final against Czech 21st seed Jiri Lehecka.

Landaluce, who had failed to register a single win at tour level in 2026 before arriving in Miami, dedicated his latest success to his late grandmother.

“She would have been 101 last week, and she passed away a few months ago. I wanted to give her the victory,” Landaluce said.

Lehecka booked his place in the quarter-finals by ousting sixth seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 in 2hr 25min.

“I just felt that in the third set, if I wanted to beat a guy like Taylor, I just needed to go for it and be aggressive,” Lehecka said.

American 22nd seed Tommy Paul set up a quarter-final against France’s Arthur Fils after cruising past Argentina’s Tomas Etcheverry 6-1, 6-3.

Fils beat Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4.

Argentina’s 18th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo followed up his upset of Daniil Medvedev on Monday with a comfortable 6-4, 6-3 defeat of French 31st seed Ugo Humbert.

Cerundolo will face Alexander Zverev in the last eight after the German third seed defeated France’s Quentin Halys 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/1).

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World No. 2 Jannik Sinner continued his dominant run, cruising into the fourth round of the Miami Open with a commanding straight-sets victory while also rewriting the record books.

The Italian star brushed aside France’s Corentin Moutet 6-1, 6-4 in a one-sided third-round encounter, extending his remarkable streak at Masters 1000 events.

In doing so, Sinner registered his 25th and 26th consecutive sets won at this level, surpassing the previous record of 24 set by Novak Djokovic in 2016.

The 23-year-old has now won his last two Masters 1000 titles, Indian Wells and Paris, without dropping a single set.

“I am very happy,” Sinner said after the match. “This sport is unpredictable, so we try to keep attention as much as we can, and we’ll see what is coming in the next round.”

Jannik Sinner was in complete control from the outset on the Hard Rock Stadium’s main court, racing to a 4-1 lead after winning 19 of the first 26 points.

He wrapped up the opening set in just 22 minutes and never allowed Moutet a foothold in the contest.

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The second seed fired seven aces, converted three of six break points, and saved the only break opportunity he faced. He will next take on American Alex Michelsen, who staged a comeback win over Alejandro Tabilo.

While Sinner’s campaign gathers momentum, the tournament has seen a wave of high-profile exits.

Defending champion Jakub Mensik was knocked out in a marathon clash against Frances Tiafoe, who edged a gripping three-set battle 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(11).

The nearly three-hour encounter saw Mensik save six match points before eventually succumbing, while Tiafoe himself held his nerve after saving two match points in the final-set tiebreak.

The American will now face France’s Terence Atmane in the next round.

Atmane progressed with a notable upset over Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, adding to a growing list of seeded casualties in Miami.

Among the biggest shocks was the early exit of Daniil Medvedev, who fell to Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in three sets. The tournament had already seen world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, Alex De Minaur and Ben Shelton bow out earlier.

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Carlos Alcaraz beat his great rival Jannik Sinner in a light-hearted sell-out exhibition match in South Korea on Saturday ahead of the Australian Open.

Eight days before the Melbourne Grand Slam and in their first appearances this year, the Spanish world number one won 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) in front of an enthusiastic 12,000 crowd in Incheon.

Neither will play competitively until the Australian Open, where Italy’s world number two Sinner is the defending two-time champion.

South Korean organisers have not said how much the two players earned, but reports in Italy suggest each could pocket more than $2 million for the match that lasted one hour and 47 minutes.

It was not always entirely serious; the smiling duo treated a packed house to some trick shots between their legs, drawing cheers, and reacting to calls from the crowd by making heart gestures.

“Jannik, we finished the season playing together. We started the season playing together,” Alcaraz said on court afterwards.

“So hopefully this season is going to be such a good one like last year. You deserve the best.”

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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have taken a stranglehold on men’s tennis over the past two years, splitting all four Grand Slam titles between them in 2024 and 2025.

“It was a close match, so a little bit of tension also,” said Sinner.

“We were just happy to be here for the first time, seeing something new. It made us feel at home, and we felt it on the court.”

Arch competitors on the court but good friends off it, Alcaraz has the upper hand in their rivalry and came into the exhibition boasting a 10-6 head-to-head record.

They will be the favourites when the Australian Open starts in Melbourne on January 18, when the serious work begins.

Alcaraz, who at 22 is two years younger than Sinner, has never gone beyond the quarter-finals at the first Grand Slam of the year, and it is the only major he has failed to win.

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Italy claimed a third Davis Cup in as many years on Sunday after beating Spain 2-0 in front of delighted home fans in Bologna and completing a treble without star player Jannik Sinner.

Flavio Cobolli sparked loud celebrations by coming back from a set down to beat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 and ensure that Italy retained their title.

Matteo Berrettini had earlier cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pablo Carreno Busta, setting Filippo Volandri’s team up for victory without the doubles match needing to be played.

“This was my dream, we’re a really united team, and we tried to recreate the spirit of the Italy team that won the (football) World Cup in 2006,” said Cobolli.

“I’m really proud of everyone and our brilliant fans are also part of this team. I’ve been repeating for three days but it’s the best day of my life.”

Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori haven’t been employed in a doubles contest in northern Italy as the hosts won the Davis Cup without losing a match.

It’s an impressive feat by Italy who competed without their two highest-ranked players in superstar Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti.

Both players sit in the top 10 of the men’s world rankings and were major absences for the tournament, especially as they chose not to take part in the title defence on home soil.

“It doesn’t matter who goes out there for us, we have a deep squad and we have a lot of great lads who play great tennis,” said Berrettini.

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Spain, too, were missing their top player in world number one Carlos Alcaraz, but the six-time Grand Slam winner would have played had he not suffered a hamstring injury during his ATP Finals showdown with Sinner a week ago.

Their bid for a seventh Davis Cup came up short after returning to the final for the first time since 2019.

“It was a very, very, very close tie,” said Spain captain David Ferrer. “We were really close.”

“Italy, in important moments, they play really good,” he added. “It’s not easy for us to play in Italy against Italy.”

Earlier on Sunday, the head of the International Tennis Federation insisted that top players were not snubbing the competition.

“There’s this false feeling out there that top players don’t represent their nation. That’s not true,” David Haggerty told reporters ahead of the final.

“Some of those top players that played in the qualifier round or the second qualifier round didn’t make it to the finals. And so we had many top players who have played.”

American Taylor Fritz, Australian Alex de Minaur, Dane Holger Rune and Norwegian Casper Ruud, all in the top 20 of the men’s rankings, featured in the early rounds of the competition without managing to reach the finals with their respective nations.

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TURIN: Jannik Sinner retained the ATP Finals title on Sunday after beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 and ending a turbulent season with victory over his great rival.

Italian Sinner brought the house down in Turin by winning the championship match that tennis fans wanted to see, adding the prestigious year-ending tournament to the Australian Open and a landmark triumph at Wimbledon this season.

The 24-year-old also bounced back from a three-month ban, which chopped out a large chunk of his season despite the World Anti-Doping Agency accepting that the Italian was accidentally contaminated with the banned substance clostebol last year.

Sinner has now won 31 straight matches on indoor hard courts, a run which stretches back to the 2023 championship match at Turin’s Inalpi Arena, which he lost to Novak Djokovic.

Four more wins on indoor hard courts would draw him level with Djokovic’s tally set between 2012 and 2015, the second-highest in the Open era, but some way behind John McEnroe’s record of 47.

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He hasn’t dropped a set at the Finals since losing that final to the Serb two years ago, and he was imperious over the week in northern Italy.

While both Sinner and Alcaraz breezed into the final, the championship game was an attritional affair, with each player rock-solid on serve until an enthralling tie-break at the end of the first set.

Sinner took the lead thanks to a brilliant lob which set up a set point, and he made no mistake with a missile of a serve which Alcaraz could only limply send wide.

But Sinner immediately handed Alcaraz the advantage in the second set with two double-faults, which helped hand his opponent a break of serve at the start of the frame.

Sinner hadn’t dropped a service game in the whole tournament up to that point, but he broke back in game six to put the crowd on their feet.

And Sinner collapsed to the ground in joy when Alcaraz sent a backhand wide on the first championship point, before heading into the stands to share his joy with his family amid the roars of the crowd.

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Jannik Sinner continued his mastery over Alex de Minaur on Saturday with a straight-sets win to reach the ATP Finals championship match for the third year in a row.

Sinner broke late in the first set and then pulled away from De Minaur to complete a 7-5, 6-2 win, his 13th in as many meetings with the Australian.

The Italian world number two has yet to drop a service game en route to the final but will likely have a tougher test in the final against top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who is the favourite to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in Saturday’s other semi-final.

“Honestly, every matchup (with Alcaraz) is different. We saw it in Rome and Paris, even if it’s the same surface (clay), it can change,” said Sinner, who lost both of those finals before beating his Spanish rival to win Wimbledon.

“Another final, has been an amazing year for me. I’m looking forward for tomorrow… Also, to see for me where my level really is, but at the same time it’s great before the off-season to have this matchup.

“He still has a match to go against Felix… He loves to play indoors, as we know. Let’s see who is going to win. Anyway, I’m happy to be in the final. Then we see.”

Sinner has won his last 18 sets played in Turin, where he beat Taylor Fritz in last year’s final. The four-time Grand Slam champion is on a 30-match winning streak on indoor hard courts.

The 24-year-old Sinner hasn’t dropped a set at the ATP Finals since losing the 2023 final to Novak Djokovic, while De Minaur ends his year with a more upbeat mood than the one he had after losing to Lorenzo Musetti in the group stage.

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De Minaur admitted that he had been in a “dark place” after that loss, which almost cost him a place in the last four, before he beat Taylor Fritz to set up Saturday’s clash with Sinner.

“I had a little shift in perspective. Of course, like, sitting here right now, I feel like I should have finished my Turin campaign having won two matches instead of one,” De Minaur told reporters.

“But you can’t really change the past. You’ve just got to do your best to learn from it, get back up, and keep on heading forward, right? That’s ultimately the goal now. Obviously, I’m in a much better place.”

De Minaur fought off two break points in the opening game of the semi-final but then failed to convert any of the three he carved out in Sinner’s first service game.

The Australian resisted again when Sinner threatened to break in the seventh and ninth games, but the second seed eventually struck the key blow at 5-5 and snatched the first set.

Sinner surged 4-0 ahead in the second set before wrapping up his ninth straight win at the tournament, becoming the youngest player since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to reach three finals at the season-ending event.

If Sinner faces Alcaraz in the final, it will be their sixth meeting of the season. Alcaraz has won four of the five previous matches, triumphing in the French Open and US Open finals.

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Jannik Sinner reached the last four of the ATP Finals on Wednesday after beating Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-3 to qualify from the Bjorn Borg group with a match to spare.

World number one Sinner is bidding to retain his title at the prestigious end-of-season tournament, and he cruised into the semi-finals in front of a delighted crowd in Turin.

The 24-year-old was not at his best and struggled with a hand problem at the start of the match, but still had more than enough to see off Zverev for the fifth straight time.

Zverev hasn’t beaten Sinner since the 2023 US Open, being destroyed by the Italian in the semi-finals of the recent Paris Masters, and again, the German couldn’t handle the four-time Grand Slam champion.

Sinner was brutal on his serve, rattling in 12 aces, and once he took the first set with his third break point of game 10, he never looked back.

“If we watch the match today, there were one or two points, that’s why I won the first set,” Sinner told reporters.

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“A couple of points, that’s why I won the second set. If those points go the other way, maybe it’s the same score in the opposite way. You never know.”

Zverev needed to win in straight sets to book his place in the semis, but will now have to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 4-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 winner over Ben Shelton, in his final group match on Friday in order to progress.

But he cut an irritated figure on court, frustrated by his inability to capitalise on any of his seven break points, a series of unforced forehand errors and at one point by a flashing advertising sign.

“Listen, I hope to see him again, it’s as simple as that, this week,” Zverev said.

“He’s not unplayable. I had many opportunities. He had one, and he used the chance. This is why he’s number one in the world, you know? He uses the chances that he gets.”

Sinner, meanwhile, will take on Shelton, aiming to top the group and set up a clash with whoever finishes second in the Jimmy Connors Group, which is currently led by his great rival Carlos Alcaraz.

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