Jannik Sinner continues to break records with superb performances at the Italian Open. He advanced to the R16 with a thumping 6-2, 6-0 victory over Alexei Popyrin. This was the Italian’s 25th consecutive victory on the tour and his 30th consecutive victory in Masters events. His latest win has also seen him surpass Roger Federer on an elite list.

Sinner has now become the player with the joint-second-most consecutive wins in Masters tournaments. He has overtaken Federer’s tally of 29 that he had registered in 2006 and is level with Novak Djokovic on 30 victories each. Notably, the Serb currently holds the record with 31 wins that he had racked up in 2011. This means that another victory in Rome would see Sinner tie Djokovic for the record, and then a triumph in the last 8 would see him break the record.

The World No. 1 has arguably been in the form of his life for the past few months and was clinical in his match against Popyrin. He gave the Australian absolutely no chance to even get close to him and broke his serve on five occasions. Sinner held his serve comfortably for the most part and wrapped up the match in just 65 minutes.

The 24-year-old entertained the home crowd with some brilliant drop shots and also hit some remarkable winners as he raced to the victory. A thing that certainly helped Sinner was Popyrin’s disappointing service. The latter only managed to win 52% and 33% of the points on his first and second serve, respectively. The Italian admitted that he benefited greatly from his opponent’s errors.

“It was a very good performance. He is a big server, and his percentage was not very high, which helped me a little bit. But I have been returning the second serves very well and I am happy to be in the next round,” he said during his post-match interview.

Moreover, Sinner has now taken his tally of consecutive serve holds to 45. He only faced one break point throughout the match and managed to save it with an unusual serve and volley. When asked about the sudden move, the World No. 1 remarked that he just followed his instinct.

“I felt like it was the right thing to do. It was a little bit of wind. When you play with wind it’s very tough to move the ball around. So I tried to serve and volley. It was just an instinct move,” he added.

This was Sinner’s third victory over Popyrin as he has now improved the H2H record to 3-1. The two had met earlier at the Qatar Open, and the 24-year-old had claimed a comfortable 6-3, 7-5 win on that occasion. Sinner is looking better as every match passes and has now won his last seven encounters without dropping a set. His previous result was a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Sebastian Ofner in the first round of the Italian Open.

Though Sinner has already broken a plethora of records in the past few weeks, he is in contention to achieve two more monumental feats in Rome.

Jannik Sinner chases a 50-year-old feat at the Italian Open

If Sinner does go on to clinch the title at the Rome Masters, then he will become the first Italian to do so in 50 years. Adriano Panatta was the last Italian to win the prestigious title back in 1976.

Sinner had come awfully close to ending the drought last year when he had made it all the way to the final. However, he had suffered a one-sided 6-7, 1-6 defeat to Carlos Alcaraz.

A triumph at the Italian Open would also see Sinner become just the second player after Djokovic to win all the Masters events that are currently present on the tour.

Having gotten past Popyrin, Sinner is now set to tackle Andrea Pellegrino in the R16. The qualifuer has had a solid run in the competition so far. After winning three qualifying rounds, he had been handed a walkover by Arthur Fils after just four games in his opening match. Pellegrino had then racked up an impressive 7-6, 6-1 victory over Frances Tiafoe in the R32.

Will Sinner continue to roll past his opponents at the Italian Open, or will Pellegrino go on to cause another major upset in the tournament? Let us know what you think in the comments.