The Jannik Sinner juggernaut continues to march on at the Australian Open as he notched up yet more milestones with his latest victory.
The defending champion overcame the heat at Melbourne Park, ill health and Holger Rune to reach the quarter-final of the opening Grand Slam of the year.
It was a stop-start affair against Rune on Rod Laver Arena as there were several stoppages, including medical timeouts for both players and an extended break to fix the broken net, but Sinner held firm as he came away with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
“I felt better when I came back to the match,” Sinner said after his victory. “My face looked a little better, I got some colour back. These are very tough conditions.
“We all suffer a bit. There’s nothing wrong with my leg. When I’m not feeling well, I usually walk on my left foot, but I don’t have any injuries. It’s just a health issue.”
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Sinner, though, admitted that the 20-minute delay to fix the net gave him an opportunity to recover as he struggled with the heat and illness.
-“It was very helpful,” he said. “Obviously nobody was expecting this kind of thing. It helped me. It was big, big luck to me today.”
With the win, Sinner moved ahead of Bjorn Borg as the player with the highest win percentage at ATP Tour level while at No 1 in the ATP Rankings since the rankings were first published in 1973.
The Italian has been top of the rankings since June 10, 2024 and he is 44-3 in ATP matches since then for a 93.6 percentage. His win over Rune helped him to eclipse Borg as the Swede sits on 91.9%.
The two-time Grand Slam winner’s latest win also saw him move level with Nicola Pietrangeli’s record for most Grand Slam quarter-final appearances by an Italian man.
They both sit on 10 with Matteo Berrettini and Adriano Panatta next best on six.
Having won seven out of seven matches at last year’s Australian Open, Sinner is now 4-0 at this year’s tournament with his overall tally at Melbourne Park 19-4 while he is 17-5 at the US Open, 16-5 at Wimbledon and 13-4 at Roland Garros.
Sinner will look to move to 20-4 in Australia when he takes on either Alex de Minaur or Alex Michelsen in the quarter-final while the winner of that clash will face either Ben Shelton or Lorenzo Sonego for a place in the 2025 final.
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