Jannik Sinner enters Roland Garros on one of the greatest runs in tennis history.
The ATP number one defeated Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the Italian Open final on Sunday to claim his first career title in his home country. This was also his first title in the only Masters 1000 tournament he had never won before, giving him the Golden Masters of his career.
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Ruud played with a 2-0 lead early in the first set, beating Sinner with strong returns from the baseline and forcing mistakes uncharacteristic of the Italian. But Sinner shook off that sluggish start by controlling her serve and evening the set.
From a 2-2 stalemate, both players traded games, with Sinner ultimately defeating Ladd for a 5-4 victory. Countering Rudd’s strength from the backline with drop shots at the net was particularly effective.
Sinner remained aggressive in the second set, breaking Rudd early after a long rally. As he continued to assert himself, the Foro Italico crowd grew louder in support of the Italian star.
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Rudd held serve in a close third game and fought his way back to the set, denying Sinner what looked like an easy path to victory. Still, he still couldn’t resist Sinner’s serve much. A backhand shot deep into the corner went into the net, giving Sinner the lead on match point.
The winner came on with a forehand rocket, and Sinner showed control of the match, waiting for Ladd’s charging lob from the corner to fall, gauging exactly where and how he wanted to hit the return, and firing a forehand to the other side.
Sunday was Sinner’s fourth consecutive day playing tennis in Rome, as he defeated Lerner Tien in the quarterfinals, and his semifinal match against Daniil Medvedev was spread over Friday and Saturday due to rain.
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Sinner improved his record against Ruud to 5-0, defeating him in Rome for the second year in a row. The two met in the quarterfinals of last year’s Italian Open, with Sinner comfortably winning 6-0, 6-1.
With Sunday’s win, the Sinner accomplished a few things.
This is a 29-game winning streak dating back to March 6th.
Six consecutive Masters 1000 wins are the longest in history
As mentioned earlier, he ties Novak Djokovic as the only players to win all nine Masters 1000 events in their career (Djokovic was 31 years old when he accomplished that, Sinner was 24).
He joins Rafael Nadal (2010) as the only players to win three Masters 1000 events on clay.
He is the first Italian man to win the title in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1976.
Sinner’s 1000 Masters winning streak includes wins at the 2025 Paris Masters and Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid and this year in Rome. The last time he lost a Masters 1000 match was last year when he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Rome final.
His only two losses this year were against Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals and against Jakub Mensik in the close quarter-finals of Qatar.
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Between all of this success and Alcaraz going down with a wrist injury last month, Sinner was the overwhelming favorite to win the upcoming French Open and became the seventh man in the Open era to complete a career Grand Slam. BetMGM currently has him as an odds-on favorite at -275.
Winning the Roland Garros title would give him what tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg called a jokemon: winning all the “big” titles at least once in his career (Grand Slam, Masters 1000, and year-end final). Djokovic is the only player to have achieved this, and Sinner, 24, is trying to repeat it.
