![\"Italy's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Italy-s-Jannik-Sinner-celebrates-with-the-trophy-a_1777831238737.jpg\" "\\"Italy's")
Italy’s Jannik Sinner celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2026 ATP Tour Madrid Open. (AFP)<\/p>\nMumbai: \u201cFlood the court,\u201d the commentator said as Jannik Sinner slapped a forehand past Arthur Fils in Madrid, \u201cand see if this guy can walk on water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italy’s Jannik Sinner celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2026 ATP Tour Madrid Open. (AFP)<\/p>\n
Worth a shot, for this guy cannot put a foot wrong at the moment. Not on clay courts or hard. Not at the end of the 2025 season or the middle of 2026. Not in Paris, or Indian Wells, or Miami, or Monte Carlo, or Madrid.<\/p>\n
This guy, the master of Masters, is winning everywhere. And scripting history with it.<\/p>\n
Sinner is the first man to gobble up five straight titles at the ATP Masters 1000 level, only a rung below the Grand Slams. The Italian world No.1 did so by crushing German world No.3 Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2 in the Madrid Open final.<\/p>\n
Such Sundays have become routine for the four-time grand slam champion in the past couple of months. Be it on the hard courts of Indian Wells and Miami in March, or the clay courts of Monte Carlo and Madrid in April-May. Go back to Paris last October and that completes a fantastic five.<\/p>\n
Sinner has also achieved the feat of playing in the finals of all nine Masters events, something only the Big Three could flaunt earlier. Roger Federer got there at age 30, and it took him from 2002 to 2011 to finish the set. Novak Djokovic got there at 25, and it took from 2007 to 2012. Rafael Nadal got there at 27, and it took from 2005 to 2013. Sinner is the youngest (24), and the quickest (from 2023 to 2026) in that select club.<\/p>\n
The Masters tournaments too are reserved for the sport\u2019s top end, and the dominance of its top most player in it has been nothing short of eye-popping.<\/p>\n
Sinner has won 28 consecutive matches at the Masters in a run that is, for now at least, only bettered by Federer (29) and Djokovic (30 and 31). Across the bagful of victories and handful of titles from last October, he has dropped just two sets (kudos to Tomas Machac in Monte Carlo and Benjamin Bonzi in Madrid). His previous two defeats in Masters events were down to retirement. His previous defeat in a completed Masters match came a year ago, to Carlos Alcaraz in the Rome final.<\/p>\n
This guy, the master of Masters, has hardly been challenged since. By opponents of all styles, size, stature and age. The dangerous Ben Shelton or Felix Auger-Aliassime couldn\u2019t in Paris. Neither could a highly-rated Joao Fonseca or the seasoned Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells. Neither could an inspired Jiri Lehecka in Miami. Neither could Alcaraz, his great foe, in Monte Carlo. Neither could Zverev, whom the Italian has now beaten nine times in a row and across those five tournaments, in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally no chance for most of the people, for us, at the moment against you,\u201d Zverev said on-court in Madrid.<\/p>\n
The US Open final defeat to Alcaraz seemingly flicked a switch for Sinner. Machine-like from the baseline, the Italian then said he didn\u2019t mind losing a few matches to try and get out of his comfort zone and add some variety to his game. On a 23-match unbeaten streak, he hasn\u2019t lost since February.<\/p>\n
The variety, and his increased confidence in mixing up his groundstrokes-heavy game, has played a part in that run. The drop shots, especially off the forehand, were served in decisive moments in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a part of my game that I\u2019m trying to improve, and use it at the right time,\u201d Sinner said after his win over Fils in the semi-final. \u201cAt the moment, I\u2019m very happy with how I\u2019m using it. Also from the backhand, I try to mix it up in important moments. It\u2019s been quite efficient till now.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Sinner has been quite electric, after the season\u2019s early days that featured a defeat to Djokovic in the classic Australian Open semi-final. The French Open looms later this month, where the best player in the world won\u2019t have his best rival for a challenge. Before that, there\u2019s another Masters coming up his home country. It\u2019s the only one Sinner is yet to win.<\/p>\n
Between now and Rome and Paris, the decisive factor could be how Sinner\u2019s body recovers and holds up from playing, and winning, four big tournaments in two months.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I\u2019ve played a lot in the last one-and-a-half months,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing very, very deep in tournaments, it\u2019s a good sign, but at the same time you tend to get a little bit more tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, though, this guy, the master of Masters, appears unstoppable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mumbai: \u201cFlood the court,\u201d the commentator said as Jannik Sinner slapped a forehand past Arthur Fils in Madrid,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[194007,64,63,285362,754,280666,6562,85,747],"class_list":["post-647636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-atp-masters-1000","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clay-courts","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-madrid-open","tag-sinner","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}