Italy’s Jannik Sinner celebrates a point against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev during their semi-final at the ATP Rome Open tennis tournament at Foro Italico in Rome on May 15, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP via Getty Images)
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One year after losing the Italian open final to his rival Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner is back in the championship match.
After struggling to breathe and facing a bout of cramps on Friday in his semifinal with Daniil Medvedev, world No. 1 Sinner got a respite when the match was called because of rain with Sinner leading by a break in the third set.
Following a 17-hour break, the two men returned to the court under sunny skies in Rome where Sinner took care of business against the 2023 Italian Open champ, winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. The Italian has now won 33 matches in a row.
He will now attempt to make more history in Sunday’s final against No. 23 Casper Ruud.
Sinner is bidding for his sixth straight ATP Masters 1000 title and his fifth straight of 2026. If he wins in his home country, he will tie Novak Djokovic as the only men to win all nine Masters 1000 titles.
“I had a bad loss to Jannik here last year and sort of got smoked and didn’t really have much to push him with or challenge him with,” Rudd said on Tennis Channel, referring to his 6-0, 6-1 loss in last year’s quarterfinals.
“But Sunday’s a new year, a new day, a new tournament, so I will just try to be as positive as I can and let’s see what happens here. If it is Jannik, I’m going to be the one who tries to stop him from getting all three Masters 1000s on the clay [Madrid, Monte Carlo, Rome].”
Rudd added of Sinner, who will be the favorite at the French Open later this month.
“He sort of looks unplayable & unbeatable these days,” he said. “But you have to just try to think, he is human, too…When you keep winning and winning , you will get closer to that first loss in a while. You just hope, whenever I show up, that will be the day. But I guess I just have to think that raising your level one level is not going to be enough against this guy, you have to raise it two, three or four times and then see if you can hang with him from there. If I want to have a chance to beat him, I will have to play my best match of the year, and let’s try to do that.”