Jannik Sinner keeps rewriting the Masters 1000 record books. On Monday evening at the Foro Italico, the world number one demolished Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 6-0 in just 65 minutes to reach the Rome quarterfinals.
The victory extends Sinner's consecutive Masters 1000 winning streak to 30, the second-longest in history behind Novak Djokovic's 31. He also became the first man to start a season 25-0 across Masters 1000 events, a feat no one had achieved before.
The Italian was utterly dominant, firing 20 winners to Popyrin's 7 while committing just one backhand unforced error in the entire match. He converted 5 of 8 break points, while the Australian struggled with 23 unforced errors and a meager 48% first-serve rate.
Sinner has now held serve for 45 consecutive service games without being broken, and has dropped only 2 of his last 62 sets at Masters 1000 level. The numbers belong to a different era of tennis dominance.
"When you play with wind, it's very tough to move the ball around. So I tried to serve and volley," Sinner explained after the match with characteristic calm.
Next up is a quarterfinal clash against fellow Italian Andrea Pellegrino, the qualifier ranked 155th who pulled off the upset of the day by dismissing 20th seed Frances Tiafoe 7-6, 6-1. One more win and Sinner ties Djokovic's all-time Masters 1000 consecutive wins record.
The Foro Italico crowd will be firmly behind their champion. The question is no longer if Sinner will match the record, but whether anyone can stop him from breaking it.
