Rain halts Jannik Sinner's bid to make Italian Open history as semi-final suspended

Tennis world No. 1 Jannik Sinner is closing in on the Italian Open final, leading his semi-final against Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 5-7, 4-2 with play suspended due to rain on Friday (15 May).

Sinner cruised in the opening set, but appeared to struggle physically in the second. Medvedev capitalized, breaking with a winner in a hard-fought 12th game to force a deciding third.

There, Sinner was back on top early, breaking for a 2-1 lead before play was suspended in the fifth game. Around 11 p.m. local time, officials made the call that the match would resume Saturday (16 May).

Medvedev had game point on his serve at the time of suspension.

If Sinner can hold on Saturday and advance to Sunday’s (17 May) final, victory at Rome's Foro Italico would make Sinner the first Italian man to win the Italian Open in 50 years. The last was Adriano Panatta in 1976. It would also complete the career Golden Masters - a sweep of all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles that only Paris 2024 Olympic champion Novak Djokovic has achieved.

His opponent will be Casper Ruud, who ended Italian Luciano Darderi's run with a 6-1, 6-1 win in the other semi-final.

Panatta's 1976 title occupies its own place in Italian sporting history.

He defeated Guillermo Vilas in the final in Rome and won Roland Garros weeks later – a clay double that no Italian man has matched in the five decades since but one that Sinner himself will also be chasing. The French is the only major at which the 24-year-old has yet to lift the trophy.

Sinner has spent the last two years rewriting what Italian tennis can achieve.

He became the country's first world No. 1 in June 2024 and has since collected four Grand Slam titles – the Australian Open in 2024, the US Open that same year, a second Australian Open in 2025, and Wimbledon 2025.

He broke Djokovic's record for consecutive Masters 1000 wins in the quarter-finals on Thursday (14 May) - a 6-2, 6-4 win over Andrey Rublev was his 32nd straight - and could extend it to 33 with a win over Medvedev and leave Rome with 34 straight wins, if he takes the title.

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