
On Thursday afternoon in Rome, the top-ranked Jannik Sinner easily defeated the 12th seed, Andrey Rublev, in the Italian Open quarterfinals: 6-2, 6-4. It took Sinner just over 90 minutes to beat Rublev in front of his home crowd.
Sinner did more than punch his ticket to the semifinals; he made history. Sinner won his 32nd consecutive match at an ATP Masters 1000 event, breaking Novak Djokovic's previous record of 31 consecutive wins. Below is a list of the giant names Sinner has surpassed with his incredible run, according to Tennis.com.
"I don't play for records, I play for my own story," Sinner said after today's victory. "Obviously, in the same time, it means a lot to me, but tomorrow is another day, another opponent, a different opponent. We're going to play in different conditions; it's going to be a night match, so let's see. But now for me the highest priority is to try to recover as much as I can physically, and we'll see how it goes."
In addition to breaking Djokovic's record, Sinner also set a new career-high for himself. Today's victory is his 27th consecutive win, a new record for the longest winning streak of his career.
It was in Rome last year when the Italian superstar made his highly anticipated return from a three-month ban. With Carlos Alcaraz suffering a few losses before a clay court season-ending wrist injury, Sinner has capitalized on the opportunity and solidified himself at the top of the ATP Rankings.
Sinner is currently the ATP World No. 1 with a singles record of 34-2 with four singles titles. Sinner will face either Daniil Medvedev or lucky loser Martin Landaluce in the semifinal tomorrow, May 15. Medvedev and Landaluce face off in the quarterfinal match on Thursday night, and the winner will have a quick turnaround before tomorrow's match against Sinner.
The Italian Open runs through May 17. After that, clay court court season continues full steam ahead into the French Open later this month.
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