Just nine days ago, Italian prodigy Jannik Sinner became the first player to win five consecutive ATP Masters 1000 titles. The 24-year-old Sinner, who took home the Madrid Open, surpassed Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic and Spanish legend Rafael Nadal, who each had won four consecutive Masters titles (Djokovic three, Nadal one).
The world number one, Sinner, is now trying to make even more tennis history.
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He beat fellow Italian Andrea Pellegrino 6-2, 6-3 at the Italian Open on Tuesday, tying Djokovic’s 2011 Masters record. In front of a crowd in his native capital, Sinner won 31 consecutive Masters 1000 matches and reached the quarterfinals of the Rome-based tournament. On Thursday, he will face Russia’s Andrei Rublev, who was rated 12th in the ATP Rankings in May.
Winning a Grand Slam tournament does the heavy lifting of leaving behind a player’s legacy. But aside from the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, the Masters 1000 is the biggest event in the sport.
And Sinner hasn’t lost a match in the Masters Tournament since last fall, when he was forced to retire in sweltering weather against Talon Greek Pool in Shanghai with severe leg cramps. If Sinner wins the Italian Open, he will have won all nine Masters tournaments by the time he turned 25. To date, Djokovic is the only man to have won every Masters tournament, but he reached that milestone at the age of 31, The Athletic reports.
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“If you want to be a great player, you have to perform to the best of your ability on every surface and in every tournament,” Sinner said, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s the mind that makes the difference.”
This summer, Sinner will attempt to conquer the most difficult surface at Grand Slam level, the clay courts of Roland Garros. Last year, Sinner took a two-set lead at the French Open before losing to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in a 5.5-hour match with three tiebreaks. Alcaraz, Sinner’s rival, has won the last two French Opens, but has already announced that he will not play at Roland Garros this time due to a wrist injury. If Sinner wins the French Open, he will secure the elusive career Grand Slam title.
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Sinner has been humming on clay lately. In fact, if he wins the Italian Open, he will become the first player since Nadal in 2010 to win every Masters 1000 tournament on clay in a season.
Sinner will also become the first home champion at the event since Italy’s Adriano Panatta won in 1976.
