{"id":16766,"date":"2026-05-16T16:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/16766\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:02:20","slug":"sinner-finishes-off-medvedev-to-set-up-italian-open-final-vs-ruud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/16766\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinner finishes off Medvedev to set up Italian Open final vs. Ruud"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME \u2013 Jannik Sinner<\/a> beat Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 when their rain-delayed semifinal resumed on Saturday and set up an Italian Open<\/a> final against Casper Ruud.<\/p>\n

Top-ranked Sinner is one victory away from becoming only the second man after Novak Djokovic<\/a> to win all nine Masters 1000 titles. Djokovic has won each Masters tournament at least twice.<\/p>\n

Sinner led 4-2 in the third set when the match was suspended late Friday. The Italian finished off the match in 15 minutes on Saturday, sealing it on his third match point after Medvedev fended off two on his serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very different challenge and a tough challenge,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cUsually, during the night, I don\u2019t struggle to sleep but this time it was not easy.<\/p>\n

“You are in the third set, nearly done, but you still have to show up again and you never know what is happening. It is like the start of the match as there are nerves again. I am very happy with how I handled this situation and that I am back in the final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier Friday on the red clay of the Foro Italico, Ruud routed home player Luciano Darderi<\/a> 6-1, 6-1.<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff plays Elina Svitolina in the women\u2019s final later Saturday.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s final is scheduled for Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sinner is also attempting to become the first Italian man to raise the Rome trophy since Adriano Panatta in 1976. Panatta will present the trophy on Sunday, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella also slated to attend the men’s final.<\/p>\n

Sinner appeared exhausted<\/p>\n

After winning the first set easily on Friday, Sinner appeared fatigued as Medvedev stepped up his game and started running him around the court with drop shots and groundstrokes to the corners.<\/p>\n

After several points Sinner bent over in apparent exhaustion and leaned on his racket for support. Sinner had his right thigh treated by a trainer midway through the second set.<\/p>\n

Sinner came back from a 3-0 deficit only to be broken again in the 12th game and concede the set to Medvedev.<\/p>\n

A bad bounce helped Sinner break Medvedev early in the third and take control for good.<\/p>\n

Sinner 4-0 against Ruud<\/p>\n

Sinner has won all four of his career meetings with Ruud without dropping a set \u2014 including a 6-0, 6-1 rout in the Rome quarterfinals last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJannik is chasing history,\u201d Ruud said. \u201cI have to be the guy to try to stop him, and it will not be easy playing here in his home country. … Last year, he really (routed me) here on the same court, so of course I\u2019m looking for revenge. But at the same time I realize that he\u2019s an incredible player and a unique talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner lost last year\u2019s final to Carlos Alcaraz, who is sidelined<\/a> due to a right wrist injury. Jasmine Paolini<\/a> in 2025 became the first Italian woman to raise the trophy in 40 years.<\/p>\n

Sinner hasn\u2019t lost since Feb. 19 in the Qatar Open quarterfinals. He has won 28 straight matches and a record five successive Masters titles. He could become the second man to win all three Masters tournaments on clay \u2014 including Monte Carlo and Madrid \u2014 in the same season after Rafael Nadal in 2010.<\/p>\n

Sinner has won 10 of his last 11 meetings with Medvedev.<\/p>\n

After Rome for Sinner is the French Open, the only Grand Slam event he hasn\u2019t won. The titleholder, Alcaraz, will also miss it.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2013 Jannik Sinner beat Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 when their rain-delayed semifinal resumed on Saturday and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5100,13,10713,17,11062,4452,20,8,5101,15,9764,27,339,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-16766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"tag-adriano-panatta","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-casper-ruud","11":"tag-coco-gauff","12":"tag-daniil-medvedev","13":"tag-elina-svitolina","14":"tag-jannik-sinner","15":"tag-jasmine-paolini","16":"tag-luciano-darderi","17":"tag-novak-djokovic","18":"tag-rafael-nadal","19":"tag-rome","20":"tag-sergio-mattarella","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}