Jannik Sinner will face Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals of the Italian Open after establishing on Thursday a new record of consecutive wins in Masters 1000 tournaments, while his opponent in the last four beat Martin Landaluce 1-6, 6-4, 7-5. Another straight-sets victory, this time 6-2, 6-4 over Andrey Rublev, moved Sinner up to 32 straight wins in the ATP’s top-ranked events, one more than the previous record established by Novak Djokovic in 2011. Rublev was Sinner’s first seeded opponent at this year’s tournament in Rome and the world number one made short work of his task in front of a delighted centre court.

The Russian offered little resistance, dropping his own serve in the first game of both sets to give Sinner a handy leg-up, and committing 28 unforced errors in 18 games.

Sinner meanwhile showed flashes of his best tennis but also started to look tired towards the end of the match, visibly touching his left thigh before confidently serving for the match.

“It’s starting to feel that I’ve been playing a lot,” Sinner later told reporters.

“However it goes, it will be a win for me, if I win great but even if things don’t go well that’s OK because I’ll have a few more days to prepare for Paris, which is my main objective this year.”

Sinner looks near unbeatable at the moment and with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz out injured he is heavy favourite to become the first Italian to win the Rome title in five decades, ahead of a potential career Grand Slam at the French Open.