Sinner ties Djokovic's Masters 1000 win streak record at Italian Open

Jannik Sinner did more than beat another opponent at the Foro Italico. He defeated fellow Italian Andrea Pellegrino 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour and 29 minutes on Tuesday, equaling Novak Djokovic’s all-time ATP Masters 1000 winning streak record at 31 matches and turning a routine-looking fourth-round result into a statement about the sport’s power structure.

Sinner raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening set and never let Pellegrino settle into a first Masters 1000 main-draw appearance. The second set offered a brief test when Pellegrino leveled at 3-3, but Sinner broke again at 4-3 and closed out the match with control. He struck 13 winners and kept his perfect record against fellow Italians intact at 19-0.

The significance stretches well beyond one match in Rome. Sinner had already become the first man to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles after lifting the Madrid Open trophy, and he had won his first 25 Masters 1000 matches of 2026 before facing Pellegrino. His last loss in a Masters 1000 event came in Shanghai in 2025, when he retired in the third round against Tallon Griekspoor. This is not a player catching fire for a week. It is a run with historical scale attached to every stop.

Rome gives that scale even more weight. Before this tournament, Sinner’s record at the Italian Open stood at 14-6, and his best previous result was a runner-up finish in 2025, when he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final. Winning the title would make Sinner only the second man, alongside Djokovic, to capture all nine Masters 1000 tournaments. That possibility matters because Djokovic is not just any benchmark. The ATP’s Masters 1000 records show that the series began in 1990, that Djokovic owns the two longest streaks in category history at 31 and 30 wins, and that Roger Federer’s best run was 29. Djokovic is also a six-time Rome champion with a 68-12 record at the event entering 2026, which is why matching him in Rome carries such sharp historical meaning.

There was another Italian storyline in the draw as Luciano Darderi stunned second seed Alexander Zverev in three sets after saving four match points, collecting his first Top 10 win and advancing to his first Rome quarter-final. Even so, the central question in Rome remains Sinner’s. He said the windy conditions made the match tricky but manageable, and he noted that a day off before the quarter-finals would matter. For Sinner, the next stage is no longer about whether he is hot. It is about whether this season belongs in the record book.