Sinner sprints into last eight

Clinical from first ball

Bidding for his own third Roland-Garros quarterfinal, and first since 2022, Rublev kept a first-strike mentality throughout the match — but was summarily dismissed by Sinner’s own strikes in a display of intentional, tactical precision.

The Italian’s ruthless momentum from his 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 thumping of Jiri Lehecka in the third round continued into the early going of his second night match on Chatrier this fortnight.

He lost just seven points in the first five games — and three of those came to start the match, where he held from 15-40 — and wrapped up the first set in a half hour.

Sinner hit 25 winners in three sets, never lost serve in the two-hour match, and only faced one break point combined in the last two sets. That came at 2-2 in the third set, but Rublev couldn’t find the court with a backhand return off a second-serve — one of 39 unforced errors the No.17 seed totalled in the match. Sinner hit just 19.

Behind the numbers

Sinner has dropped just 30 games in 12 sets in Paris so far — and by extending his winning streak at Grand Slam events to 18, the world No.1 has tied Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander for the ninth-longest unbeaten run in the Open era.

Four more wins would secure him not only a first Roland-Garros title in the process, but sole possession of seventh place on that illustrious list. But first in his path, for win number 19 and sole possession of the ninth spot, is the surprise package in unseeded Kazakh Alexander Bublik.

The former top 20 player, currently ranked No.62, is through to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal after he upset fifth seed Jack Draper in four sets on Lenglen.

Sinner’s win also gives him sole possession of the most major victories for an Italian man in the Open era, and drops Rublev to 0-10 against top 5 opponents at the majors.

Sinner speaks

On his comprehensive victory: “I’m very, very happy. We both know each other very well… we’ve played each other so many times, so we try to change up a little bit our game style, and I’m very happy.

Things can go very quickly in a bad way in best-of-five; they can go so long, so I’m very happy and proud to finish in three.”

On tweaking his return stance: “We changed before here in this tournament. I felt like sometimes I go out of rhythm, so this gives me rhythm to try and go through the ball — especially on first serves which come very, very fast — just to block on both sides.

“Second serve return I try to change up from the back and go in close; today, I felt like from the back it was working very, very well. We always try to improve as a player, and trying out new things; sometimes it works very well, like today. It was a very good performance, so we try to keep going and see how it goes.”

On his calm demeanor: “Inside, there is a storm going on, but tennis is a very mental game and you try to not show anything to your opponent. When you see the opponent a little bit struggling, you always try to raise [the level]. I’m someone who watches quite a lot the other side; I try to understand how my opponent is feeling. In the beginning of my career, the storm was also outside, not just inside. I’m happy how I handled the situation.”

Did you know?

Sinner has now won five of his last six matches against Rublev — dating back to a retirement victory by Rublev at Roland-Garros in 2022 — and now leads the overall head-to-head 7-3.