Jannik Sinner matches Novak Djokovic streak and closes on record with 25th straight win as he beats Alexei Popyrin in Rome

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Four-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner continued his record-setting ATP Masters 1000 winning streak with a 6-2 6-0 Italian Open victory over Australia's Alexei Popyrin.

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Sinner has now won 25 successive Masters 1000 matches to start the season, joining Novak Djokovic as the second man to achieve that feat.

Sinner also extended his Masters 1000 winning streak to 30 matches, just one behind the all-time record of 31 set by Djokovic in 2011.

He is bidding to join Djokovic as just the second player to have won all nine Masters events.

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World No. 1 Sinner is fully expected to go the distance in Rome and become the first Italian men's singles champion in the nation's capital since 1976 after world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the tournament owing to a wrist injury.

Sinner made light work of Popyrin to set up a fourth-round meeting with world No. 155 and compatriot Andrea Pellegrino on Tuesday.

Sinner sent down fives aces and made just one double-fault in a comprehensive triumph, having flown out of the blocks to break Popyrin's serve in the opening game as the 24-year-old looks to win a record-extending sixth consecutive Masters 1000 title.

"On the conditions, I feel like the wind was one way," Sinner said after the match.

"I didn't have to change a lot, but in the same time, when you play with wind, you try to move the ball a bit more around. When you are against the wind, I try to go quite flat. It was a very good performance."

And on Popyrin, Sinner said: "He is a big server and his percentage was not very high, which helped me a little bit. But I have been returning the second serves very well, and I am happy to be in the next round."

As reported by the ATP, Pellegrino, meanwhile, is the third-lowest ranked player to reach the last-16 in Rome this century.

"It is amazing," Pellegrino, who is making his Masters 1000 debut, said after his shock win over 20th seed Frances Tiafoe.

"When I came here at the beginning of the tournament, I didn't expect to have this kind of result. I am so happy."

Tuesday's clash will mark the second time Sinner and Pellegrino have met, the former emerging victorious with a 6-1 6-1 win at an ITF event in 2019.

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Sinner came close to winning the 2025 Italian Open but fell to Alcaraz in Rome 12 months ago, the Spaniard then going on to successfully defend his French Open title.

However, the world No. 1 will feel confident about going the distance at Roland-Garros next month to win a first clay Grand Slam of his career after Alcaraz withdrew from the event.

Sinner is 'beatable' - Ruud

Norway's Casper Ruud believes Sinner is "beatable" but conceded that you have to face him on a favourable day.

Sinner hasn't lost a match since mid-February and his last defeat at Masters level was in Shanghai in October.

"His results this year kind of speak for themselves," said Ruud.

"Four Masters 1000s in a row to begin the year. Four of four. He’s already made history, he can make more history.

"But he also showed in the beginning of the year, he’s beatable. Novak beat him [at the Australian Open]. [Jakub] Mensik beat him [in Doha].

"But when he’s on, not many can touch him. I would say that when both him and Carlos [Alcaraz] are on their highest level, they’re kind of unreachable for the rest at the moment.

"It’s a reason why they have won the last [nine] Slams, these two guys."

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