Jannik Sinner schools Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar in first Madrid Open face-off

Jannik Sinner emerged victorious from one of the Mutua Madrid Open’s most highly-anticipated match-ups, defeating Rafael Jodar, 6-2, 7-6 (0) to reach the semifinals on Wednesday.

Closing in on an astounding fifth straight Masters 1000 title, the world No. 1 weathered two entertaining sets to win the final 11 points before defeating the Spanish teenager in one hour and 56 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium.

Sinner came into the Madrid quarterfinals on a 20-match win streak, having won back-to-back-to-back Masters 1000 titles at the BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open, and the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. With chief rival Carlos Alcaraz ruled out of remaining clay-court tournaments—including Roland Garros—due to a wrist injury, the pressure has been on the world No. 1 to continue winning in his absence. Looking to complete a box set of Grand Slam and Masters victories, Sinner is only lacking Madrid, Rome, and Roland Garros from his already-illustrious resume, and the Italian has looked impressive throughout an unbeaten clay campaign.

The 19-year-old Jodar looked to be his most intriguing test of the week as the young Spaniard stormed into his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal fresh off a maiden ATP title victory in Marrakech earlier this month. As a wild card, Jodar scored back-to-back upsets over No. 5 seed Alex de Minaur and No. 27 seed Joao Fonseca—defeating the latter in a late-night thriller that indirectly led to Sinner playing an 11 a.m. fourth-round on Tuesday—and, as a result, is projected to be in range for a Roland Garros seed.

“Jodar is a very, very clean hitter, very easy power," Sinner said over the weekend. "You can hear with the sound, you know, when he touches it, and it's a good sound coming from the racquet. He's very, very talented. He's going to be a great, great player in the future, and he's already showing. I like the mentality, it's quite calm. I don't know him personally, but he seems very humble."

Still, Sinner was clearly the stronger of the two as their quarterfinal clash began on the top seed’s terms. Sinner claimed two breaks to nab the opening set and had Jodar on the ropes in a tense ninth game of the second.

Jodar, who had five break points of his own on Sinner in the second set, gamely held and the set hurdled towards a tiebreaker. Claiming the first mini-break, Sinner continued a run of 10 straight points to take a 6-0 lead in the Sudden Death, serving out the win in just under two hours.

Sinner will await the winner of the quarterfinal match between No. 21 seed Arthur Fils (Sinner leads 1-0) and No. 11 seed Jiri Lehecka (Sinner leads 4-0).