Sinner Rides Hot Hand into Rome’s Third Round

Upsets were in the air on Saturday in Rome. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka went down to Sorana Cirstea, the 36-year-old Romanian shocking the Foro Italico by earning her first win over a reigning World No. 1; defending women’s singles champion Jasmine Paolini blew three match points and was toppled by Elise Mertens; on the men’s side, fifth-seeded Ben Shelton lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili, and No. 4 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fell to Mariano Navone, who earned his first Top 10 win. 

Jannik Sinner wasn’t having any of it. 

The Italian continued his dominant tennis on Saturday evening on Court Centrale, battling past Austria’s Sebastian Ofner, 6-3, 6-4, to stretch his current winning streak to 24. 

Sinner really didn’t put a foot wrong during his first tour-level meeting with the 29-year-old World No. 82. He dominated on serve, never facing a break point and winning all but 12 points from the service stripe, as he converted breaks in the fourth game of the opening set and the first game of the second to ease his stress level. 

Ofner, whe drops to 0-13 against the ATP’s Top 10 lifetime, hung tough but just couldn’t find a window to threaten the World No. 1’s serve. 

24-year-old Sinner, bidding to become the first man from Italy to win the Rome singles title since 1976, is also hoping to complete the set of nine Masters 1000 titles by next Sunday. 

Sinner, who became the first player to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles last weekend in Madrid, also moves up on the all-time list for consecutive Masters matches won. He moves into a tie with Roger Federer with his 29th straight win at this level, and is now just two shy of the all-time record, set in 2011 by Novak Djokovic. 

Sinner will pass Djokovic by reaching the semifinals. 

For now, he’ll set his sights on the third round, where he awaits either Jakub Mensik (the last player to defeat him on tour) or Alexei Popyrin.