Photo credit: Antoine Courvecelle/ROLEX
Don’t let his polite disposition, persistent praise for his rivals or soul-stirring recent meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican fool you.
At heart, Jannik Sinner is a red-headed ruthless control freak.
Commanding the center of the court, Sinner confined Jiri Lehecka to the corners rampaging through 11 straight games in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 demolition to roll into the Roland Garros fourth round for the fifth time in six appearances.
World No. 1 Sinner extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 17 matches as he continues his hunt for the Sinner Slam—holding all four Grand Slam championships simultaneously.
The reigning US Open and Australian Open champion has swept all nine sets he’s played, dispensed two bagel sets and permitted just 22 games romping into the round of 16.
Ruling rallies as if imposing his blue print on the red clay, Sinner called the shots striking 31 winners in 21 games—14 more than the man from Czechia.
“I just try to control whatever I can, and today I did that, or the first three matches here I did that,” Sinner said. “Whatever I could control, I tried to control.
“And, of course, like this morning I felt that I was, you know, feeling the ball very good, but again, you know, the conditions can change from one moment to the other.”
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Lehecka offered a candid assessment of this demolition.
"I just got my ass kicked today," Lehecka said. "He was better in everything."
The top-seeded Sinner has spent just about 5 hours, 45 minutes on court reaching the fourth round at a Slam for the eighth straight major.
“I think in early stages of Grand Slams is good that you don't spend so much time, if you have a chance, on court,” Sinner said, “So I'm happy to do that. In the other way, sometimes I think kind of matches like this, they can change quickly, you know, in any case, because if you don't start well in one set and the match can go long, long, and then you cannot control it.
We saw that, you know, in occasions here throughout the tournament. You have to have the focus level always very, very high, because unexpected things can happen. Of course, knowing now in the next-round match there is going to be very, very difficult. Also today, you know, Jiri is an amazing player. We know that. He has shown that throughout his career. Again, happy about how it's going until now, but in the other way, things can change from one day to the other.”
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The top seed will try to sustain this cruise control trip facing Andrey Rublev in a Roland Garros rematch of red heads with a trip to the quarterfinals riding on the outcome.
Three years ago, Rublev led Sinner 1-6, 6-4, 2-0 when the Italian retired from their 2002 RG fourth round match. Overall, Sinner has won six of nine meetings vs. the volatile Russian power player.
The 17th-seeded Rublev took a walkover into the fourth round after 14th-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils withdrew with a back injury in the aftermath of his heroic five-set epic win over Jaume Munar.
“I had some issue with the back since a long time, and during the match against Munar it gets worse,” Fils said. “Then I did some exams. The exams were not good at all. Got some stress fracture.
“Yeah, whatever, we decide with the team it was better to stop now, because if I'm stopping now, I could stop for only four to six weeks. If I was pushing myself too much, I would probably stop for a couple of months.”