Sinner Into Madrid Semifinal: Showdown With Fils, Unbeaten On Clay

Jannik Sinner beat Spain's Rafael Jodar 6-2, 7-6(0) and qualified for the Mutua Madrid Open semifinals for the first time. The world number one saved all five break points he conceded to the nineteen-year-old home wild card before closing out the second-set tie-break without giving up a single point.

It is Sinner's twenty-first consecutive tour win, and in Madrid he is chasing his fourth straight Masters 1000 title of the season after Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. Only Novak Djokovic, in 2011 and 2015, had ever opened a year with a longer streak at this level.

Awaiting him in the semifinal is Arthur Fils, the twenty-one-year-old Frenchman fresh off a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jiri Lehecka. Fils has not lost a match on clay since returning from injury: nine consecutive wins that include the title in Barcelona against Andrey Rublev and now his first Masters 1000 semifinal in Madrid. He is the first Frenchman to do it since the tournament moved to clay in 2009. On Monday he will return to the top 20 for the first time since September.

It will be their second tour-level meeting, the first since 2023. Sinner comes in as the heavy favorite, but the Frenchman is one of the few players this season to have lifted a trophy on European red clay: in Madrid he arrives with the confidence of someone who, on this surface, still does not know what it means to lose in 2026.