Jannik Sinner treated his home fans to an Internazionali BNL d’Italia masterclass on Thursday evening, when he routed Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1 with a stunning all-around quarter-final performance in Rome.
The top-seeded Italian struck the ball powerfully off both wings from the first point on Campo Centrale, and he barely looked back as he overwhelmed Ruud, who less than two weeks ago won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Madrid. After setting the tone by winning 16 of the first 18 points, Sinner maintained his level to race to a 64-minute triumph.
“It’s tough to say,” said Sinner, when asked how close to ‘perfection’ his performance had been. “I was feeling great on the court today. I think we all saw that. My goal was to try to understand where my level is at this tournament. It raised day by day, so I’m very happy about that. The result doesn’t really matter, but I felt today was a very positive sign for me.
“Everything can change in one day. It’s not that one performance can tell everything about my shape now, but I’m very happy. I think today everything worked very well. I was serving well, also returning well, and moving great on the court. I’m very happy about that and now let’s see what’s coming in the semis.”
With his 25th consecutive tour-level win, Sinner set a semi-final meeting with Tommy Paul, who earlier defeated Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(4), 6-3. The 23-year-old, who is playing his first tournament since January’s Australian Open, is bidding to become just the second Italian men’s singles champion in Rome after Adriano Panatta triumphed in 1976.
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