Sinner equals Djokovic’s all-time Masters 1000 win streak with Pellegrino dispatch in Rome
Jannik Sinner (No 1) eased past compatriot Andrea Pellegrino (No 155) 6-2, 6-3 to equal Novak Djokovic’s all-time record of 31 consecutive Masters 1000 wins. The Italian needed one accelerative gear-change from 3-3 in the second to settle a match the qualifier had spent 80 minutes refusing to lose.
Jannik Sinner, Rome 2026 | © Foto FITP
A bellissima giornata. A great day, in Italian words. Top seed Jannik Sinner equalled Novak Djokovic’s record of 31 consecutive ATP Masters 1000 wins – the longest streak at the level in the series’s history – with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino in the round of 16 of the Rome ATP Masters 1000, the 88-minute victory taking him into a third Rome quarter-final.
Sinner is only the second Italian in the Open Era after Adriano Panatta (five) to reach that stage three times in the Italian capital.
The match itself was more of a contest than the scoreline suggests. Pellegrino, the world No. 155 and a qualifier playing his first match against a top-10 opponent, took his chances every time he could find them. His sliced forehands, crossed court forehands and a handful of well-timed drop shots drew sustained applause from a Campo Centrale audience torn between admiration for the underdog and an unmistakable urge to see Sinner win.
Sinner faced one break point in the opening set and erased it. In the second, Pellegrino was a couple of millimetres from a double break-point chance at 3-2. Sinner answered the threat by accelerating from 3-3 – the gear-change Pellegrino simply could not match – broke for 4-3, and closed the match without further incident on his first match point.
Sinner vs. Rublev or Basilashvili
The streak Sinner now shares with Djokovic dates back to the Paris Masters last November. He has won five consecutive Masters 1000 titles in that period and dropped only two sets in his last 62 played at the level. A win in his quarter-final on Wednesday would push the streak to 32, alone at the top of the all-time list.
Sinner is also 57-0 against players ranked outside the top 50 since losing to No. 66 Dušan Lajović at Cincinnati in 2023, and 18-0 against fellow Italians on tour.
He will face Andrey Rublev, who defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili (3-6, 7-6, 6-2). Should Sinner win the title – which would also make him the second man after Djokovic to win all nine Masters 1000 events – he would join Rafael Nadal as the only players to sweep the clay-court Masters 1000 in a single season.
