“I’m already writing my own story”: Jannik Sinner breaks Novak Djokovic’s Masters 1000 record in Rome

Jannik Sinner completed his 32nd consecutive victory in a Masters 1000 tournament and moved into first place in the ATP Tour history record — surpassing Novak Djokovic’s 31 consecutive wins back in 2021. The world No. 1 comfortably defeated Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals.

During Sinner’s run, he completed five consecutive Masters 1000 titles — starting from the Paris Masters, going through the Sunshine Double with Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open this season — before later crowning himself on clay courts at the Monte-Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open.

Meanwhile, Sinner continues his campaign at the Italian Open — where he is searching for his 10th Masters 1000 title and to complete the Career Golden Masters, meaning winning each of the nine tournaments in the category at least once, something that so far has only been achieved by Novak Djokovic.

Sinner highlighted in press conference something he has mentioned several times — that for him, records are not the most important thing: “I think I’m already writing my own story in any case. I feel like even if things don’t go well, I still did something great for myself,” he explained to Italian press. “I would have never imagined standing here as the player I am right now.”

Sinner now owns a 34-2 record this season and four titles — being champion of all four Masters 1000 events played this season. His only defeats came in the semi-finals of the Australian Open against Novak Djokovic and later in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open against Jakub Mensik. Since then — back in February — he has put together a streak of 27 consecutive victories since his last defeat.

“Back when I was younger, I never thought I would reach such a high level of tennis,” Sinner said to the press. “Now I’m here and the perspective is obviously different. Mostly, I hope people think that I was fair play and a good person. For me, that matters more than everything else. Then underneath that, hopefully people remember the level I produced for the rest of my career — that I was a very solid player. That’s it, nothing crazy.”

The Italian ended up consolidating himself this season as a top player on clay courts — something that seemed still pending in previous seasons, but which he has now managed to reflect with important titles and victories against the best players in the world.

“I don’t think we need to look only at the results,” he said regarding the step forward he made in 2026 on clay courts. “I think last year I also played great clay-court tennis. I made the final here and the final in Paris, and it was an incredible run.”

“This year is the first time that I’ve won something big on clay, and that gives confidence in the process we are trying to build year after year. Physically I’m also getting stronger, so I think it’s a mix of everything, including experience — knowing how to play certain points in a better way. Mostly, I feel that improving physically helps you a lot on clay.”

In the semi-finals, he is still waiting to know his opponent, who will come from the match between 2023 Rome Open champion Daniil Medvedev and young Spaniard Martin Landaluce — the absolute surprise of the tournament after entering the main draw as a lucky loser and surprisingly advancing to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

“It’s an important match and I need to recover physically tonight because I’m feeling that I’ve played a lot, so I have to recover as much as possible,” Sinner mentioned regarding his next challenge. “Tomorrow evening will be a very difficult match. The rallies will be long and physically it will be tough. Playing in the evening is always more demanding physically.”

“We’ll see how it goes, but regardless of the result, for me this tournament is already a win. If I win tomorrow, great. If things go wrong, it’s still okay because I’ll have a few more days to recover for Paris, which is my main goal this year.”

Sinner is searching to become the first Italian man to win the tournament since Adriano Panatta back in 1976. The world No. 1 already came close to winning the title last year when he reached the final, but ended up losing to Carlos Alcaraz — absent this time through injury during the entire clay swing.