Sinner breaks net & Rune’s spirit to make quarterfinals

melbourne: First came the medical timeouts, one each for Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune with the temperature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) at the Australian Open. Then came the unusual sight of a 20-minute delay because the net at Rod Laver Arena detached from the court after being hit by a big Sinner serve.

In the end, Sinner put his physical struggles aside and emerged with the victory — as he keeps doing, no matter the site or the circumstances — and the defending champion moved into the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Monday by eliminating the 13th-seeded Rune 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2.

The No. 1-ranked Sinner occasionally tried to cool off by pressing a cold towel to his face or pouring water down the back of his neck. He was far better down the stretch, both after a 10-minute-plus delay in the third set when he went to the locker room for medical attention and after a 20-minute holdup in the fourth when the screw connecting the net to the blue playing surface came undone.

“I knew in my mind ... I would struggle today,” Sinner said during his on-court interview, without saying what was wrong.

“Me and the doctor, we talked a little bit. It helped me.”

He has won 18 consecutive tour-level matches, dating to late 2024. Last season, Sinner went 73-6 with eight titles, the first man with that many tournament championships in a single year since Andy Murray in 2016.

A second Italian joined Sinner in the quarterfinals when 55th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego got that far at a Major tournament for the first time by ending the run of American qualifier Learner Tien 6-2 6-3 3-6 6-1. In the women’s fourth round, Madison Keys, the 2017 US Open runner-up, eliminated 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 6-3 1-6 6-3, and now plays Elina Svitolina, a 6-4 6-1 winner against Veronika Kudermetova.