Sinner shines brightly, enters Italian Open semi-finals

Jannik Sinner beat Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1 in a stunning all-around performance in the quarterfinals in Rome on the morning of May 16. The No. 1 seed hit the ball hard from both sides from the first point at Campo Centrale, and he easily crushed Ruud, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Madrid less than two weeks ago. After making a strong impression by winning 16 of the first 18 points, Sinner maintained his high level of play to win in 64 minutes.

Sinner shines in the quarter-finals (Photo: Getty).

Sinner responded to his near-perfect form, saying: "It's hard to say. I felt great on court today. I think we all saw that. My goal is to try to understand my form in this tournament. The fact that my form is improving day by day makes me very happy.

It doesn't really matter what the result is, I feel like today is a very positive sign for me. Things can change in a day. It's not a performance that can say everything about my current form, but I'm happy. I think everything went really well today. I served well, returned well and moved around the court well. I'm happy with that and now let's see what happens in the semi-finals."

With his 25th straight win, Sinner set up a semi-final meeting with American Tommy Paul, who had earlier defeated Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(4), 6-3. Sinner, playing his first tournament since the Australian Open in January, is bidding to become just the second Italian men's singles champion in Rome after Adriano Panatta won in 1976.

Ruud's performance declined in the quarter-finals of the Italian Open (Photo: Getty).

With Lorenzo Musetti also in the semi-finals, Sinner's victory marked the first time in the open era that two men have reached the semi-finals at the Italian Open. It was the first time in Masters 1000 history (since 1990) that two Italians had reached the semi-finals at the same event. Based on the ease with which he ended Ruud's nine-match winning streak, Sinner is confident that he can continue to end Italy's 49-year wait for a men's singles champion in Rome.

"We had a rivalry, I might have considered that. Each of us had one or two opponents that we struggled with a little bit more. I tried to repeat what I did in the past. I hit the ball really well today. Playing against Ruud at night was a little bit more to my advantage, because he couldn't make the ball bounce as much as he wanted," said Sinner. The Italian took his head-to-head record against Ruud to 4-0.

Sinner was in great form but Ruud was in an unusual slump. The Norwegian lost eight games in a row and struggled to save two break points to defend his first service game. However, that was his only mark of the match, as Ruud then lost four more games to help his opponent complete the match.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/sinner-thang-hoa-ruc-ro-tien-vao-ban-ket-italian-open-20250516072236193.htm