It took just 14 minutes of the Madrid Open final for all 12,500 spectators packed inside Estadio Manolo Santana to collectively conclude that the match was already over. Down 0-3 and already desperately searching for a response to the superb play from his opponent, Alexander Zverev opened his service game with two horrific missed overhead smashes in consecutive points. He clearly did not believe he could win this match.
While Zverev flailed helplessly throughout his pitiful 56 minutes on court, the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, pieced together yet another startling exhibition of relentless, destructive shotmaking paired with unwavering focus as he continued his total domination of men’s tennis by destroying Zverev 6-1, 6-2 to capture the Madrid Open title for the first time in his career.
This is already one of the most remarkable winning runs the sport has seen and it is difficult to see where it could end. Sinner is the first man in history to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles and the first to win the first four Masters 1000 titles of the year. He has won 23 consecutive matches.
Back in 2018, a 31-year-old Novak Djokovic pulled off one of the great achievements in tennis by becoming the first man in history to win all nine active Masters 1000 titles. Sinner has now won eight of them at just 24 years old. He will have the chance to complete his set on home soil at the Rome Masters, which begins next week.
No match-up represents Sinner’s dominance quite like this one. This is the first time in 10 years that the Madrid Open final has been contested between the top two seeds, but the four previous finals between the top two seeds were played between two of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray, all evenly matched contests involving four of the best men’s players in history.
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Today, with Carlos Alcaraz out indefinitely, the gap between the world No 1 and the rest of the field has never been this wide in the modern era of men’s tennis. Sinner actually lost four of his first five meetings against Zverev early in his career, but he has now won their past nine matches, winning the last 14 sets they have played. Sinner now holds 14,350 ranking points, one of the highest totals in history, compared to Zverev’s count of just 5,805 at No 3.
The pair have faced each other in each of Sinner’s last five Masters 1000 titles, which reflects Zverev’s consistency and his ability to outperform the rest of his rivals. He is playing good tennis, winning the matches he is supposed to win. The player seeded one spot ahead of him, however, is playing a completely different sport.