The Rome Masters is heating up, and top seed Jannik Sinner continues his dominant run. In a commanding performance against Masters champion Alexei Popyrin, Sinner delivered a bagel set, cruising to his 30th consecutive Masters match win. He now stands just one victory away from tying Novak Djokovic’s all-time longest Masters winning streak.
Among the chasing pack, Alexander Zverev remains the most consistent, having reached the semifinals in consecutive Masters events. But what about the rest?
No. 4 Novak Djokovic: Skipped Madrid, suffered a first-round exit in Rome. The 24-time Grand Slam champion traditionally plays only one warm-up before Roland Garros, but this year he posted his worst result in 19 years at the Rome Masters. Last year, he played Geneva and won his 100th title; this year, he arrives at the French Open with zero clay wins. 
No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime: Won one match in Madrid, then lost in the first round in Rome. Despite a career-high ranking, the Canadian’s clay form has been disappointing. He fought hard in Rome even while cramping, but ultimately fell short.
No. 6 Ben Shelton: First-round exits in both Madrid and Rome. After winning his first clay title earlier this season, the American has struggled to replicate that success on the slow surface, mirroring many of his compatriots. 
No. 7 Taylor Fritz: Missed both Madrid and Rome—skipped the entire clay season. The American No. 2 has been absent from the tour, reportedly nursing an injury, and historically clay has not been his strong suit.
No. 8 Alex de Minaur: First-round losses in Madrid and Rome. The Australian, now a stable top-10 player, has seen his floor drop on clay, with early exits becoming a worrying trend.
No. 9 Daniil Medvedev: Won two matches in Madrid and has advanced to the fourth round in Rome. As a former champion here, the Russian has shown solid consistency on clay, proving his all-surface resurgence is real.
Beyond the top 10, the only players to win matches in both Madrid and Rome—apart from Sinner and Zverev—are Italy’s No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti. However, the 2024 semifinalist was outclassed by Casper Ruud in the round of 16 this year.
Among players outside the top 10, Alexander Bublik failed to replicate his 2025 form and was eliminated early. Arthur Fils reached the semifinals in Madrid but retired after just four games in Rome due to injury—a concerning echo of his Roland Garros injury last year. Holger Rune, who won Barcelona in 2025 and planned a return in Hamburg, has now abandoned that plan and will wait for the grass season.
With Sinner surging and Djokovic misfiring, we can’t help but miss one man: Carlos Alcaraz. Without him, who can truly challenge Sinner?
