Italian Jannik Sinner, the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, made history on Thursday at the Italian Open in Rome, winning a record 32nd consecutive match at the sport’s elite Masters 1000 level and moving within two victories of a feat only one man has ever achieved.
The 24-year-old defeated Russia’s Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 32 minutes in the quarterfinals at the Foro Italico, surpassing Serbian great Novak Djokovic’s previous record of 31 straight wins, set back in 2011. The ATP Masters 1000 series is the level just below the four Grand Slams and features the nine biggest tournaments on the men’s tour outside of those majors.
With the win, Sinner also joined Spain’s Rafael Nadal as the only men to reach the semifinals at the first five Masters 1000 events of a single season. Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, accomplished it in both 2010 and 2011.
Sinner has now won five consecutive Masters 1000 titles — Paris last November, followed by Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid earlier this year — and has not lost a match at this level since October 2025. If he lifts the trophy in Rome on Sunday, he will become only the second man in history, after Djokovic, to win all nine Masters 1000 events during his career, an achievement known as the Career Golden Masters. He would also become the first Italian to win the men’s singles title in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1976, ending a 50-year wait for a home champion.
On court, Sinner declined to dwell on the milestone. “I don’t play for records. I play for my own story,” he said. “At the same time, it means a lot for me. But tomorrow is another day, a different opponent, different conditions.”
He plays his semifinal on Friday night against the winner of a late Thursday quarterfinal between former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Spanish qualifier MartÃn Landaluce. A potential final on Sunday could pit Sinner against his great rival, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who beat him in last year’s Rome final.
