ROME \u2014\u00a0Jannik Sinner\u00a0is two victories away from becoming the first home man to win the\u00a0Italian Open\u00a0in half a century. And it doesn\u2019t seem like anybody can stop him \u2014 either in Rome or at the French Open that starts in 10 days.<\/p>\n
The top-ranked Sinner landed shots on the lines repeatedly in a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over No. 14 Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals Thursday and move past\u00a0Novak Djokovic\u00a0with a record 32nd consecutive victory in Masters 1000 events \u2014 the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t play for records. I play just for my own story. And obviously at the same time it means a lot to me,\u201d Sinner said.<\/p>\n
The last Italian man to raise the singles trophy on the red clay of the Foro Italico was Adriano Panatta in 1976. Panatta will present the title to this year\u2019s champion on Sunday, with Italy President Sergio Mattarella also slated to attend the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special tournament for me,\u201d Sinner said.<\/p>\n
With nearly everyone inside the 10,500-seat Campo Centrale cheering for Sinner, many supporters wore hats and T-shirts in orange \u2014 his theme colour.<\/p>\n
One group of fans held up a sign that said, \u201cSinner, Facce Sogna\u201d \u2014 \u201cSinner, Make us dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
He lost last year\u2019s final in Rome to Carlos Alcaraz, who is now\u00a0sidelined\u00a0due to a right wrist injury, while\u00a0Jasmine Paolini\u00a0in 2025 became the first Italian woman to raise the trophy in 40 years.<\/p>\n
Sinner broke serve in the opening game for a third straight match and never lost control against Rublev, who was once ranked as high as No. 5.<\/p>\n
Rublev noticed there were \u201cmany points where he played really well or close to the line or in a line. But he\u2019s No. 1 and it\u2019s normal. You need to force him to miss and it takes a lot of focus to be able to play at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner had only one brief lapse when Rublev broke him late in the second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit breezy, a bit windy, so it was very tough conditions,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cI felt we both didn\u2019t play at our best today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner said he felt fatigued toward the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be all right. It\u2019s normal that one day in the tournament you are slightly tired,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been very long days for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner hasn\u2019t been beaten in a Masters event since he retired with cramps in extreme heat against Tallon Griekspoor in Shanghai in October.<\/p>\n
Djokovic won 31 straight Masters matches in 2011.<\/p>\n
Including all tournaments, Sinner\u2019s winning streak reached 27 matches. He was last beaten by Jakub Mensik in the Qatar Open quarterfinals on Feb. 19 \u2014 and he hasn’t even dropped a set since his opening match of his previous tournament, the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n
Sinner is also aiming to become the second man after Djokovic to triumph at all nine Masters events. Djokovic has won each event at least twice.<\/p>\n
The Italian Open is the only Masters event that Sinner hasn\u2019t won.<\/p>\n
His semifinal opponent will be 2023 Rome champion Daniil Medvedev or Spanish qualifier Martina Landaluce, who were playing later.<\/p>\n
The other semifinal will feature Casper Ruud of Norway against\u00a0Luciano Darderi, an Argentine-born Italian.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s tournament,\u00a0Coco Gauff\u00a0beat 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3 to reach the final for a second straight year.<\/p>\n
Gauff saved a match point in a three-set victory over Iva Jovic in the fourth round and then came back from a set down to defeat Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Against Cirstea, Gauff got 78% of her first serves in and had only one double fault.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just happy to be through in straight sets today,” Gauff said. “It’s been a marathon week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff was beaten by Paolini in the 2025 Rome final, then went on to\u00a0win the French Open.<\/p>\n
In Saturday’s final, Gauff will face three-time Rome champion Iga Swiatek or two-time winner Elina Svitolina, who were playing later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2014\u00a0Jannik Sinner\u00a0is two victories away from becoming the first home man to win the\u00a0Italian Open\u00a0in half a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-669648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}