Jannik Sinner survives Karen Khachanov, scores comeback win in Madrid

Jannik Sinner remains in the hunt for a maiden clay-court Masters 1000 title after surging into the Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals, rallying from a set down to defeat Karen Khachanov, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

The top seed shook off concerns over a lingering hip injury to ultimately dispatch an in-form Khachanov, seeded sixteenth, in just over two hours on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium.

Sinner has been the most in-form player of 2024, starting the season with a maiden major victory at the Australian Open and maintaining that form throughout the hard-court swing with a semifinal finish at the BNP Paribas Open and another victory at the Miami Open.

He began his clay-court campaign at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in Monte Carlo, where he lost a hard-fought semifinal to eventual champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, but has nonetheless appeared the player to beat on all surfaces as he arrived to the Caja Magica as the top seed in the absence of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Though he was yet to drop a set coming into the Round of 16, Sinner admitted to feeling discomfort in his hip after rallying from a 3-5 deficit in the second set of his third-round encounter with Pavel Kotov, suggesting it was the result of over-exertion in the gym.

Still, he had reason to feel confident against Khachanov, whom he’d beaten in their last three meetings, including Down Under back in January. A former world No. 8, Khachanov rallied from a set down in his opening match against Roberto Bautista Agut to put on a more commanding performance to defeat Flavio Cobolli on Monday.

Khachanov has enjoyed a return to relevance since reaching the 2022 US Open semifinals, snapping a 23-match losing streak to Top 10 players last spring in Miami and reaching the second week in four of his last five Grand Slam main-draw appearances. The two-time Roland Garros quarterfinalist made a solid start to his clay-court swing with a win over good friend Daniil Medvedev en route to the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo.

Taking on Sinner for a second straight Masters 1000 quarterfinal of the season Khachanov applied pressure on return from the outset, taking a 0-40 lead in the third game before ultimately scoring the lone break of the set at 5-5, serving the set out to love.

Sinner turned the tables on Khachanov early in the second set, earning and converting his first break point of the match and drop just five points on his own serve to level the match at one set apiece.

Khachanov began the decider keen taking the initiative, engineering an early break chance on Sinner’s serve. But the Italian saved it and began making in-roads on Khachanov’s serve, outrallying the Russian to score the first break of the final set.

Sinner was in full flow by the end of the match, breaking Khachanov a second time to book a last-eight meeting with either Félix Auger-Aliassime or No. 5 seed Casper Ruud, who is fresh off a maiden ATP 500 victory in Barcelona.