ROME/WASHINGTON, May 5, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)
The Internazionali BNL d’Italia, which dates back to 1930 and is celebrating its 54th edition in the Open Era this year, is the last of three-straight ATP Masters 1000 events contested on clay in Europe. As the 2026 Italian Open gets underway on Wednesday, all focus and attention are on Jannik Sinner, who is greeted with much ballyhoo and adulation everywhere he goes about the Foro Italico grounds.
A year ago, the World No. 1 from Italy returned from a three-month doping ban to great fanfare in the Eternal City. Although he lost the Rome title match to World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, this year the charismatic Spaniard is sidelined with a wrist injury and unable to defend his title.
Destination: Roma 🇮🇹
A masterpiece on clay awaits… pic.twitter.com/JTzffNKjMe
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 4, 2026
Instead, the 24-year-old Sinner is ready to step up as he attempts to win his sixth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 crown – and fifth straight this year – and to extend his ATP Masters 1000 winning streak, which reached 28 with his 57-minute 6-1, 6-2 Mutua Madrid Open triumph over World No. 3 Alexander Zverev of Germany in Sunday’s championship final.
During his champion’s news conference in Madrid, Sinner was asked if he’s aware of the kind of history he’s been making on the tennis court by winning five straight ATP Masters 1000 crowns.
“Yeah, I mean, it means a lot. In the same time, you know, as I always said, I cannot compare myself with Rafa, Roger, Novak. You know, what they did, it’s something incredible,” he said. “I don’t play for these records, you know, or I don’t play for records in general. I play for myself. I play for my team, because they know what’s behind. Also, my family, you know, because my family, they, with the success I’ve had, they also never changed how they are towards me. They are simple parents, and I feel very safe when I’m around them.”
S🖐️I🖐️N🖐️N🖐️E🖐️R@janniksin is the first player to win five consecutive ATP Masters 1000 titles ⤵️@MutuaMadridOpen | #MMOPEN https://t.co/5bXes5fhmc pic.twitter.com/WSaOMr6DN4
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 3, 2026
A title victory in Rome will reward the winner handsomely with 1,007,165 euros in prize money and 1,000 ATP Rankings points. If the winner is Sinner, it would give him a complete set of all nine ATP Masters 1000 events – also known as a Career Golden Masters. Only Novak Djokovic has achieved the milestone, and has won all nine ATP Masters 1000 events twice.
The 38-year-old Serbian, a six-time Rome champion, returns from a nearly two-month-long injury sabbatical that has sidelined him since his round of 16 loss to Great Britain’s Jack Draper at Indian Wells. The World No. 4 Djokovic was placed in Zverev’s lower-half of the 96-player draw and will open against either Marton Fucsovics of Hungary or a qualifier. So, it is possible that Sinner and Djokovic could meet in the men’s singles final on May 17, or Sinner versus Zverev, again.
📂 Novak_Back_On_Campo_Centrale#IBI26 pic.twitter.com/GubUjUo1rT
— Internazionali BNL d’Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 4, 2026
In the meantime, Sinner leads a charge on home soil among Italians, which includes No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti, No. 10 seed Flavio Cobolli and No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi, in hopes of a first Italian men’s singles champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1976 – long before any of the current Italian hopefuls were born.
Sinner opens against either Sebastian Ofner of Austria or Alex Michelsen of the United States. He could face some intriguing competition early on in the draw, such as 26th seed Jakub Mensik of Czechia in the third round. Mensik is one of only two players who have defeated Sinner this season, back in the Doha quarterfinals in February. Another intriguing match-up for Sinner, if he reaches the fourth round, would be against No. 15 seed Arthur Fils of France. Sinner defeated Fils in straight sets in the Madrid semifinals last Friday. However, the in-form Frenchman, who won the Barcelona title last month, is 9-1 on clay this season.
Also, among those who are in Sinner’s half of the draw are: No. 4 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, No. 5 seed Ben Shelton of the United States, No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia and No. 27 seed Joao Fonseca of Brazil.
Hi Felix! Let the tennis begin ❤️
P.S. Your Italian is PERFECT 👌#IBI26 | @atptour @felixtennis pic.twitter.com/k9GtfpATf3
— Internazionali BNL d’Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 4, 2026
In the bottom half of the draw, the No. 3 seed Djokovic is in the same quarter as Musetti, as well as 11th seed Jiri Lehecka of Czechia and 23rd seed Casper Ruud of Norway.
Meanwhile, the No. 2 seed Zverev, a two-time Rome champion (2017, 2024), will face either Daniel Altmaier of Germany or Zhang Zhizhen of China in his opening match. Sixth seed Alex de Minaur of Australia is a possible quarterfinal opponent for Zverev. He begins against either Matteo Arnaldi, who won the Sardegna Open Challenger on Sunday, or Jaume Munar of Spain, and could face up-and-coming Spanish teenage star Rafael Jodar, who is seeded 32nd, in the third round. It would be a rematch of their Madrid showdown.
Projected @atptour QFs by seeding
Sinner 🆚 Shelton
Auger-Aliassime 🆚 Medvedev
Musetti 🆚 Djokovic
De Minaur 🆚 Zverev #IBI26— Internazionali BNL d’Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 4, 2026
Following his Madrid Open title defeat, Zverev said during his post-match news conference that everyone is struggling against Sinner and not just him. “He’s won the last five Masters events, so it’s not like I’m the only one losing to him. I’m just losing to him more because I get to him every single time and I lose to him,” he said.
“I think he’s very stable. He doesn’t have dips; he doesn’t have phases where he goes down. I think that’s why he’s World No. 1. To me, that’s more spectacular, I think, keeping the level the whole time.”
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Zvevev added: “Well, I think there’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else right now. It’s quite simple. I think there’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else. And I think there’s a big gap between Alcaraz, myself, maybe Novak, and everybody else. I think there are two gaps right now. It’s difficult to say that there’s not a gap between Sinner and everybody else if he hasn’t lost a match in Masters events since Shanghai.”
As for Sinner, during his champion’s news conference in Madrid, he said: “Physically, I’m good. There is no reason not to play Rome, of course. But at the same time, I want to enjoy this. It has been a very, very long tournament, starting from Indian Wells. Obviously very happy, but now it’s also good to recover. Especially also mentally, we did a lot. There is always a lot of pressure, so, yeah, let’s see.”
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