Masters

Jannik Sinner has broken Novak Djokovic’s all-time record of successive match wins at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments by recording the 32nd straight victory of his historic streak to reach the Italian Open semi-finals.

The Italian world number one overpowered 12th seed Andrey Rublev 6-2 6-4 to continue his bid to join Djokovic as only the second man to win all nine Masters 1000 titles – the sport’s highest level below the Grand Slams.

Sinner, 24, appears in unstoppable form before the French Open – the only major standing between him and a career Grand Slam – begins on 24 May.

He has joined Spanish great Rafael Nadal as the only other man to reach semi-finals at each of the first five Masters 1000 events in a season, and will face Russian Daniil Medvedev for a place in the showpiece final.

Seventh seed Medvedev lost the first five games against Spanish lucky loser Martin Landaluce as he conceded the opening set in just 26 minutes, but battled back to win 1-6 6-4 7-5 and reach his first semi-final in the clay-court swing.

“I don’t play for records. I play just for my own story,” Sinner told the crowd.

“At the same time, it means a lot to me. But tomorrow is another opponent, in different conditions – it’s a night match.

“Now the highest priority for me is trying to recover as much as I can physically.

“Emotionally it takes a lot playing here at home. At the same time, I’ll definitely try to do my best. It’s a win-win situation for me in any case. It was a good day today.”

MacIntyre stopped short of apologising, but believes he has the right set-up in place to perform well as he seeks a third PGA Tour victory.

“I’ve got my family, friends and team, they are the ones I really listen to,” he said. “If I’ve done something wrong, they’ll tell me.

“That’s how I go about life. I just do what I want, how we want, not just personally, but with my family and friends and we go about our business the way we want to do it.

“Some people like it, some people don’t, but at the end of the day it’s a job and I come out here to perform the best I can.”

After six birdies and a solitary bogey at Harbour Town, MacIntyre feels his game is in a good place.

“Coming off last week, a disappointing performance, to come into this week I was comfortable with the golf course, comfortable with my game,” he said.

“I tried to put as much of last week behind me as I could. I’m driving it beautifully off the tee. I’m being aggressive off the tee which gives me lots of wedges round here.

“I didn’t take many chances in the middle part of the round, which was a bit disappointing, but five-under par is always good to start.”