Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d'Italia
Some champions channel inspiration from spiritual sources.
A day after Jannik Sinner’s audience with Pope Leo XiV at the Vatican, the world No. 1 played celestial tennis confining Casper Ruud to red clay hell in Rome.
A ruthless Sinner surged through eight straight games shredding Madrid champion Ruud 6-0, 6-1 in a fierce and frightening 63-minute thrashing.
“I was feeling great on court today—I think we all saw that,” Sinner said. “My goal was trying to understand where my level is at this tournament. It’s raised day by day. I’m very happy about that.
“How I felt today is very, very positive signs for me. You know every thing can change in one day, but I’m very, very happy. Today everything worked very very well… Moving great on court so very happy about that and let’s see what comes in the semis.”
It’s Sinner’s 25th consecutive victory—he’s 11-0 in 2025—and sends him into his maiden Rome semifinal against American Tommy Paul. Sinner has won three of four meetings vs. Paul.
Earlier, the 11th-seeded Paul topped a hobbled Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(4), 6-3 reaching his second straight Rome semifinal.
The 27-year-old Paul is the first American man to reach back-to-back- Rome semifinals since Hall of Famer Pistol Pete Sampras did it in 1993-94.
The Rome semifinals are a celebration of Italian tennis as Sinner joins Davis Cup teammate Lorenzo Musetti giving the home side two of the final four. It is the first time in Open Era history multiple Italian men have reached Rome semifinals and the first time in ATP Masters 1000 history that two Italian men will contest semifinals of the same event.
Both Sinner and Musetti are bidding to become the first Italian to rule Rome since the legendary Adriano Panatta defeated Guillermo Vilas to capture the 1976 Italian Open.
Sinner started and ended tonight’s quarterfinal with love breaks. In between, Sinner slashed down the line daggers off both wings whipping 22 winners—15 more than Ruud.
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This was so one-sided, Sinner reshaped Court Centrale’s clay into a Dante’s Inferno experience for Ruud torching the Norwegian with damaging drives.
The reigning US Open and Australian Open champion extends a historic streak: Sinner has now won 24 consecutive sets vs. Top 10 players since losing to No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz in the Beijing final last fall. That’s second on the ATP all-time list behind only former world No. 1 in singles and doubles, John McEnroe, who won 28 straight sets vs. Top 10 opponents during his spectacular 1984 season, widely regarded as one of the best ever.
The most frightening fact about Sinner imposing beatific beatdown on Ruud wasn’t that he bageled the two-time French Open finalist or that he snapped the Madrid champion’s nine-match clay-court winning streak with ease.
It’s that Ruud actually did not play poorly and still got completely annihilated by the two-time Australian Open champion operating at a lofty level in just his fourth match back since serving a three-month suspension.
“Everything went to my favor today,” Sinner said of life in the zone. “Also some net cord, some lines, the match can change very quickly.”
How sharp was Sinner?
It took Ruud, one of the premier clay-court players in the sport, 15 minutes to win a point on serve and a full 47 minutes to snap the shutout.
The seventh-ranked Ruud, who was 7-0 in his prior ATP Masters 1000 clay-court quarterfinals, was making his first serve yet still found himself at the wrong end of a shooting gallery. Sinner stacked successive love breaks, storming through 12 of the first 13 points for a 3-0 lead.
Proactive court positioning and sheer pace saw Sinner scald a 101 mph forehand winner down the line before firing an ace as he held for 4-0.
Fifteen minutes into the match, Ruud won his first point on serve when Sinner netted a forehand drop shot. That was a temporary reprieve. Sinner slammed a forehand swing volley for his third straight break and a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes. By then, Sinner had eight winners compared to none for the Norwegian.
On his third set point, Sinner slammed a diagonal forehand closing the set in 27 minutes.
A flurry of forehand winners from Ruud—his first of the match—helped him earn game point in the third game.
After 47 minutes of one-way traffic, Ruud ripped a forehand down the line snapping his eight game slide to hold for 1-2.
Italian fans roared at Ruud’s perseverance and he responded raising both arms and smiling toward the sky after cracking the scoreboard. That game required Ruud to smack forehand after forehand winner.
An overwhelming Sinner continued the onslaught breaking again for 4-1.
At that point, Ruud would have required divine intervention or at least a Papal dispensation from defeat to prevent the inevitable.
Sinner slashed one final backhand winner down the line to close the 63-minute demolition.