Sinner beats Fils to reach Madrid Open final, chase fifth straight Masters title
Jannik Sinner overpowered Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4 in Madrid, setting up a final against Alexander Zverev and keeping his fifth straight Masters 1000 title in reach.
Jannik Sinner controlled Arthur Fils with the kind of clean, efficient tennis that has turned him into the player everyone else is chasing. The world number one beat the rising Frenchman 6-2, 6-4 on Friday at Manolo Santana Stadium to move into the Madrid Open final and stay on track for a fifth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 title.
The numbers told the same story as the score. Sinner won 62 of 107 total points, converted three of six break points and saved all three break points he faced. He finished with 17 winners to Fils’ 10, a margin that reflected how quickly Sinner took control of rallies and how little he allowed Fils to build momentum on clay.
The result carried extra weight because Fils did not arrive as a routine opponent. The 20-year-old came in on a nine-match winning streak, had just won the ATP 500 title in Barcelona earlier in April and had gone 22-5 since returning to the tour in February after an eight-month back injury layoff. He also became the first Frenchman to reach the Madrid semifinals since the tournament moved to clay in 2009. Sinner ended that run with a performance that mixed pressure on return, steadiness in the biggest points and the movement to cut off Fils’ power before it could settle.
For Sinner, the victory added to a season already shaped by relentless results. It was his 27th win at Masters 1000 level, and the run to the final kept alive a bid for a record fifth straight Masters 1000 crown after trophies in Paris last year and at Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo in 2026. That kind of consistency has made Madrid feel less like a breakout and more like confirmation of a broader stretch of dominance across surfaces.
The final against Alexander Zverev, a two-time Madrid champion, gives Sinner one more high-level test before the next major swing of the season. But after the way he handled Fils, the clearest edge on the tour still belongs to the man who keeps answering pressure with control, efficiency and a game that has few obvious cracks.
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