ROME: Jannik Sinner reached the semi-finals of the Italian Open on Thur­sday after seeing off Andrey Rub­lev and establishing a new record of consecutive wins in Masters 1000 tournaments.

Another straight-sets victory, this time 6-2, 6-4 over Rublev, moved Sinner up to 32 straight wins in the ATP’s top-ranked events, one more than the previous record established by Novak Djokovic in 2011.

“I don’t play for records, I play just for my own story,” said Sinner on court. “At the same time, it means a lot to me, but tomorrow is another day, another opponent, a different opponent.”

Rublev was Sinner’s first seeded opponent at this year’s tournament in Rome and the world number one made short work of his task in front of a delighted centre court.

On Friday, Sinner could face Daniil Medvedev, winner of the 2023 title at the Foro Italico, with the seventh seed taking on lucky loser Martin Landaluce in the first match of the evening session, which is scheduled to start at 1700GMT.

Sinner looks near unbeatable at the moment and with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz out injured he is heavy favourite to become the first Italian to win the Rome title in five decades, with a potential career Grand Slam on the cards at the French Open.

Rublev offered little resistance, the Russian dropping his own serve in the first game of both sets to give Sinner a handy leg-up, and committing 28 unforced errors in 18 games.

Sinner meanwhile showed flashes of his best tennis but also started to look tired towards the end of the match, visibly touching his left thigh before confidently serving for the match.

“I’m starting to feel that I’ve been playing a lot, so I need to recover as much as possible because tomorrow will be very difficult,” Sinner later told reporters.

“However it goes it will be a win for me, if I win great but even if things don’t go well that’s OK because I’ll have a few more days to prepare for Paris which is my main objective this year.”

Gauff in final

Coco Gauff followed Sinner by reaching the Rome final for the second straight year after beating veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3.

The American star has struggled on clay this season, with a last-16 exit in the Madrid Open coming after a disappointing run to the quarter-finals in Stuttgart.

But she dealt with Roma­nian Cirstea — who is set to retire at the end of the year — professionally as Spring sunshine burst out on centre court, helped by a marked improvement in her often erratic service game.

The 24-year-old made only one double fault and got 79 percent of her first serves in play, and cut a confident figure on court ahead of a potential title clash with a revitalised Iga Swiatek.

Gauff was beaten by Jasmine Paolini in last year’s final but could go one better ahead of her Roland Garros title defence.

Swiatek will bid to reach her first final of the year when she faces Elina Svit­olina in the final match of the day on centre court.

A six-time Grand Slam champion, Swiatek has been out of sorts on clay since winning the last of her four French Open titles two years ago, but she has exploded back into her best form in Rome.

Since struggling through her second-round win against Caty McNally, Swiatek has dropped just seven games in three matches and looks back to her best on her preferred surface.

Swiatek recently took on board Francisco Roig, the former coach of men’s clay-court icon Rafael Nadal, after a difficult opening few months of the season.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2026