Knockout Artist: Sinner Rolls Into MC Semifinals with 20th Straight Masters Win

By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, April 10, 2026
Photo credit: Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Facebook

A jarring Jannik Sinner bolt blurred by leaving Felix Auger-Aliassime rubbing his temple as if traumatized by tremor.

Sinner stung baseline drives with ferocity and flicked forehand drop shots with fine feel creating chronic headaches for the Canadian.

There’s no panacea for this pain: Sinner is a major Masters migraine for the world.

World No. 2 Sinner scored his 20th consecutive ATP Masters 1000 win with a 6-3, 6-4 dismissal of Auger-Aliassime to charge into his third Monte-Carlo semifinal.

Continuing his march toward a maiden Monte-Carlo final—and to supplant rival Carlos Alcaraz and regain the world No. 1 ranking—Sinner hit his way into history today. 

The 24-year-old Italian joins Big 3 icons Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as only the fourth man in series history to amass a 20-match Masters 1000 win streak.  

“I feel like a step forward today,” Sinner said. “It was a very, very tough match.

“I knew I had to get better in certain areas. The serve is not there yet where I would want to. I’m very happy. Yesterday I was tired. I recovered very good. I’m happy to be back in the semis.”

Most players aim to defend the corners of the court, Sinner blows up points with his running strikes from what are supposed to be defensive positions on court.

Even on the full stretch, Sinner can unleash the dynamite running strike to blow points apart.

It is the 15th straight win for Indian Wells and Miami champion Sinner, who made history as the first man to sweep the Sunshine Double without surrendering a set. 

Today, Sinner shredded Auger-Aliassime with fire and finesse, improving to 15-1 in his last 16 matches against Top 10 players.

In a rematch of the 2025 US Open semifinal and 2025 Rolex Paris Masters final, Sinner wreaked high-percentage baseline demolition on Auger-Aliassime defeating the Canadian for the fifth straight match to seize a 5-2 lead in their head-to-head series.

A powerful performance propels Sinner into his 48th career Tour-level semifinal. Sinner will carry a 22-2 record on the season into his fourth consecutive Masters 1000 semifinal vs. Alexander Zverev for a spot in Sunday’s final.

The third-seeded Zverev fended off Brazilian phenom Joao Fonseca 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in today’s opening quarterfinal.

Former Olympic gold-medal champion Zverev won 17 of 20 trips to net in a physical two hour, 40-minute conquest.

Less than an hour after Zverev made a Masters milestone as the fourth man in series history to reach 10 ATP Masters 1000 semifinals on clay courts, he was back out on the practice court preparing for Saturday’s semifinal showdown vs. Sinner.

You’d be practicing too, if you were about to face this version of Terminator Sinner, who rides a seven-match winning streak against Zverev into Saturday’s semifinals.

A sharper serve and down the line daggers are two reasons why Sinner is poised to regain the world No. 1 ranking.

Sinner dabbed a drop shot winner to hold for 3-2 and signal to his opponent a prelude of problems to come.

In the sixth game, Sinner torched a scalding forehand to displace the Canadian then tapped a forehand drop shot winner for break point. That sequence caused Auger-Aliassime to blink: He double-faulted away the break and a 4-2 lead to Sinner.

The No. 2 showed both skills belting a backhand winner for double set point. Sinner stung a serve winner wide to wrap the opening set. Sinner more than doubled Auger-Aliassime in winners—10 to 4—and won 21 of 28 serve points in the set.

Down the line damage helped Sinner carve out the key break in the seventh game of the second set.

Sprinting left, Sinner slide into a clean backhand pass down the line for 15-30 then caught a break when Auger-Aliassime thought the Italian’s forehand would float out only to see it land inside the baseline. The Canadian badly bungled a forehand to face double break point.

On the second break point, Sinner worked his way to net behind a forehand, was forced back by a challenging lob and threw down a declarative smash breaking for 4-3.

The first Canadian to reach quarterfinals of all nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, slid a backhand strike down the line holding for 4-5 and forcing the Wimbledon winner to serve it out.

Sinner closed in 92 minutes and will try to sustain his Masters 1000 winning streak—and mastery of Zverev—tomorrow.