The top-ranked player, Jannik Sinner, has advanced to the Madrid Open championship match by defeating Arthur Fils in straight sets, positioning himself to potentially achieve an unprecedented fifth consecutive Masters 1,000 victory.
This marks the Italian’s twenty-second triumph in a row, securing his inaugural appearance in the Madrid final, where he is set to compete against the second-seeded player, Alexander Zverev.
At 24 years old, Sinner has already claimed victory in the initial three ATP 1,000 tournaments of the current season – namely, Indian Wells, Miami, and Monte Carlo – in addition to his success in Paris during the previous year.
Should Sinner secure his fifth consecutive Masters 1,000 championship this Sunday, he would eclipse Novak Djokovic’s achievement of four consecutive wins, which Djokovic managed three times, and also surpass Rafael Nadal’s streak of four straight tournament victories in 2013.
Moreover, Sinner has emerged as the fourth, and notably the youngest, competitor to have competed in the finals of all nine Masters 1,000 tournaments, placing him alongside esteemed players like Djokovic, Nadal, and Roger Federer.
During Friday’s semi-final, the Italian player secured two breaks of serve to win the opening set 6-2 against Fils, the 21st seed, who recently triumphed at the clay-court Barcelona Open just a fortnight prior.
Despite Fils, aged 21, holding a 3-2 lead in the second set after fending off a pair of break points, the four-time Grand Slam winner Sinner ultimately managed a crucial break, establishing a 5-4 advantage before serving to close out the contest with scores of 6-2, 6-4.
Sinner now stands as only the third male competitor, following Federer (in 2006) and Nadal (in 2011), to reach the final of the initial four Masters 1,000 tournaments in a single season; furthermore, his win makes him the first individual born in the 21st century to achieve 350 professional tour victories.
Subsequently on Friday, Alexander Zverev, ranked third globally, defeated the unseeded Belgian Alexander Blockx with scores of 6-2, 7-5, thereby securing his spot in the Madrid final for the fourth occasion.
Sinner and Zverev, aged 29, are now set to compete against each other in a fifth successive Masters 1,000 competition, noting that the German has been defeated in straight sets during their previous four semi-final encounters.
Zverev, who previously claimed titles in Madrid in both 2018 and 2021, quickly dominated the initial set against Blockx, who is 21; however, he needed to exercise more patience in the subsequent set, ultimately securing a break in the eleventh game before serving successfully to conclude the contest.
Notwithstanding his loss, Blockx’s ranking has improved by 34 positions, placing him at 35th in the ATP standings, a feat accomplished after he previously defeated three seeded players from the top 20 to advance to his inaugural Masters 1,000 semi-final.
