Still not 100% but firing on the court: Jannik Sinner rampantly reaches Paris Masters Quarter-Finals

Jannik Sinner is into the Quarter-Finals of the Paris Masters for the first time winning through on Thursday seeing off Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-1 to keep up his hopes of returning to World No.1 despite the fact that he is certainly not 100%.

The Italian flexed out his right leg but never called for a medical timeout and he struck 12 winners to just two unforced errors during the opening set to lead. He won a 10-minute game at the start of the second to break Cerundolo's serve striking a forehand winner on his second break point. From then on, he eased to victory a lot simpler than the first set.

With the win, he became the first Italian to reach the Quarter-FInals at all nine Masters 1000 tournaments. He has won at Miami, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai and has now won his last 23 matches indoors. The Italian can return to World Number One for a short time at least if he can lift his first Masters 1000 title of the season.

This is despite the fact that Sinner himself called it an impossible feat earlier in the week. Sinner will next meet Ben Shelton after the American defeated Andrey Rublev 7-6, 6-3. They will both play at the ATP Finals next month. Shelton won their first meeting all the way back at Shanghai in 2023 but since then he has lost the six following not winning a set in any of the encounters. He will hope to change that on Friday.

“I was up twice with the break in the first set. Couldn’t convert. I put myself in an uneasy situation. Happy how I handled the match. I felt much better. This hopefully can give me the confidence to start off tomorrow in a good way hopefully. Every match is different. Let’s see what’s coming. I hope I can recover physically, that’s my main priority. We see how it goes. Today was still a great match and great performance on my side.”

“We try to manage it. Of course I’m not fresh fresh. But let’s see. I feel like today was a match that wasn’t as physical.. Which is good for me. Happy to finish it off in 2 sets. Under 1 and a half hours. I’m gonna sleep very well tonight. I’ll be ready for tomorrow. It’s gonna be a really difficult opponent tomorrow. I have to play at 100%. Hopefully I can do that. We all hope for a great match.”