Sinner Advances to Doha Quarterfinals, Clash with Mensik Looms

Jannik Sinner is making the most of his debut in Doha. The four-time major champion has powered into the quarterfinals without dropping a set, defeating Tomas Machac in the first round and following that up with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Australia’s Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday.

Sinner, who exited this year’s Australian Open at the hands of Novak Djokovic, will face Jakub Mensik in the quarterfinals.

“I felt like I started off very well in the first set, not so many problems with my service games,” Sinner said.

The Italian was called to duty in the second set as Popyrin held his own, keeping the match level through 10 games. It was then that Sinner made his move with a break for 6-5, before closing out the contest with an uncomplicated hold.

“I felt like he raised his level and I missed a couple of easy shots and lost a bit of rhythm and confidence,” Sinner said on court. “I just tried to dig deep, especially at 5-all. He made a couple of mistakes that helped me get the decisive break and still I’m very happy.

“You have to find different ways to win matches.”

Sinner has now won 50 consecutive matches against players ranked outside the Top 50, and he improves to 2-1 lifetime against Popyrin, who entered Wednesday’s clash with a ranking of 53.

Sinner leads all players in hard court wins since the start of 2021, with 213. Only Daniil Medvedev, who was defeated earlier on Wednesday by Stefanos Tsitsipas, has over 200 hard-court wins in that span.

Hard-Court Win Leaders Since the Start of 2021 Season:

• Jannik Sinner 213
• Daniil Medvedev 202
• Taylor Fritz 170
• Alex de Minaur 164
• Andrey Rublev 162
• Alexander Zverev 162

Other Results from Doha on Wednesday

Here are the singles results from Doha today, Wednesday, February 18, 2026:

Round of 16 Results

• Stefanos Tsitsipas def. Daniil Medvedev (4) (6-4, 6-4)
• Jannik Sinner (2) def. Alexei Popyrin (6-3, 7-5)
• Jakub Mensik (6) def. Zhizhen Zhang (6-4, 6-4)
• Arthur Fils (LL) def. Quentin Halys (6-1, 7-6(7))
• Karen Khachanov (7) def. Marton Fucsovics (6-2, 4-6, 6-4)
• Jiri Lehecka (8) def. Zizou Bergs (6-2, 6-2)
• Andrey Rublev (5) def. Fabian Marozsan (6-4, 6-3)