5 hours ago
6
Forty-six minutes into one of the most highly anticipated matches of the clay-court season, Casper Ruud triumphantly raised both hands to the sky and struggled to suppress a smile. Ruud, however, was not cheering the completion of a successful set or even a singular, spectacular point; he was commemorating sarcastically the very first game he had won.
It was the only thing Ruud had to cheer all night as Jannik Sinner pieced together a remarkable statement performance under the lights in Rome, underlining his enduring status as the best player in the world by completely demolishing Ruud, the sixth seed, 6-0, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open.
This victory marks the first time that Sinner has ever reached the last four at the biggest tournament in his home country and he is now two wins away from what would be a remarkable title on his return from a three-month anti-doping suspension. He will face Tommy Paul, the 11th seed, on Friday for a place in the final.
“It was a great performance,” Sinner said. “Very happy about that. But things can change quickly, no? Every day is different. Tomorrow is a different opponent. We play again in the night. But still it’s a different matchup. I always try to prepare myself in the best possible way.”
While most players would spend their rest day before a big match maintaining a low profile and conserving energy, Sinner was almost as busy on Wednesday. He started the day by meeting Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, giving the newly elected pontiff a tennis racket, and he ended the night as a guest at Bologna’s win over Milan in the Coppa Italia final, which was held at the Stadio Olimpico on the other side of the vast Foro Italico grounds.
“Amazing, honestly,” Sinner said on his meeting with the pope. “I never experienced something like this. I was very honoured. I didn’t know exactly really what to say, no? It was a very emotional thing also with my parents there. It was very nice. It was something I will never forget, that’s for sure.”
Ruud represented Sinner’s first top-10 opponent of his return and as the Madrid Open champion he was the most in-form player in the draw, but his recent title did not make a difference. “It’s as near as perfect that I witnessed, at least as a player playing someone, so I’ve just got to give it to him,” Ruud said.
Sinner’s level was stratospheric from the very first point. He opened the match by absolutely thumping the ball. While Sinner’s backhand, the stroke that comes most naturally to him, has been excellent from the beginning of the tournament, here he could also do whatever he wanted on the court with his forehand. The sheer force and weight of his forehand, and the ease with which he redirected his two-handed backhand down the line at will, completely overwhelmed Ruud.
“There’s a kind of saying that you have that when someone plays that well, it feels like you have two forehands, one from the forehand side and another forehand from the backhand side,” Ruud said. “In his case, it’s almost like two backhands because his backhand is also so good. It was just like playing a wall that shoots 100mph balls at you all the time.”
This was a complete performance. Sinner returned stupendously well and demonstrated his growing variety with some well-measured, delicate touches alongside his brutal power. The few times Ruud was in control of the points, Sinner effortlessly shifted his defence into attack. By 3-0, 30-30 in the opening set, Sinner had allowed Ruud one single point and the Norwegian ended the set with two service points. One incredible set would have been impressive enough, but Sinner refused to let up until the end.
“It doesn’t feel so bad,” Ruud said. “Honestly, I think it was more fun than anything, even though I lost love and one, it’s like you just look at the guy and say: ‘Wow, this is kind of next-level shit.’ Excuse my language. I don’t know what else to say. It was almost fun to witness at the same time. Of course, I wish it was a closer match. I wish I could have given the people, the fans, a longer or closer match. But I think that I was there ready to play, he was just even readier.”
Sinner’s victory rounded off another incredible 24 hours for Italian tennis after Lorenzo Musetti, the eighth seed, defeated the second seed, Alexander Zverev, to join Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals. In the women’s draw the sixth seed, Jasmine Paolini, became the first Italian woman to reach the final in Rome since Sara Errani in 2014 with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Peyton Stearns.
