ATP Tour

Sinner continues to find form to reach Wimbledon R4, Medvedev falls

Jannik Sinner has yet to hit top gear this week at Wimbledon, but he is back into the fourth round at the grass-court major for the fifth consecutive year.

The defending champion was pushed to five sets in his opening-round win against Miomir Kecmanovic before he was tested at times by Nuno Borges. Competing on No. 1 Court for the first time at this year’s Championships, Sinner overcame American Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 13 minutes on Friday afternoon to continue his run.

While the scoreline seems one-sided, the match was not. In the afternoon London heat, Sinner committed 26 unforced errors to Brooksby’s 20, and was broken when trying to serve out the match at 5-3 in the third set. The top seed also struggled to time the ball cleanly in periods and did not quite have the natural touch on his shots when moving forward, a quality that has developed impressively in the past year.

However, when it mattered, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings went into lockdown mode to grind out his third win of the week, setting a fourth-round clash against Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki, who beat #NextGenATP Spaniard Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4.

“I am very happy about the win,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “I am trying to improve every day. A small step forward today and I am trying to get better if I want to get further in this tournament.”

The Italian suffered a shock second-round exit to Juan Manuel Cerundolo at Roland Garros last month and is aiming to bounce back from that disappointment on the lawns in south west London.

Sinner has a history of responding to heartbreak at the grass-court major. In 2025, Sinner squandered three championship points in the Roland Garros final against Carlos Alcaraz but gained revenge in the Wimbledon final, where he defeated the Spaniard to lift the trophy for the first time.

The four-time major champion Sinner is aiming to become the 10th man in the Open Era to retain the Wimbledon title, just two years after Alcaraz joined that list.

Brooksby was competing in the third round at Wimbledon for the second time. The 25-year-old American's best result at a major remains his US Open run in 2021, when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.

In other action, Jan-Lennard Struff upset two-time semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 7-5 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.

Struff, who overcame Brandon Nakashima in a five-set epic that stretched across two days in the second round, rallied from 2-5 in the third set to seal victory in two hours and 52 minutes in the pair's 10th Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting (8-2 Medvedev).

Medvedev was Sinner's seeded quarter-final opponent in London. The former World No. 1 has now failed to advance beyond the fourth round in his past seven majors.

Struff will play Hubert Hurkacz in the fourth round after the Pole defeated Tommy Paul 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-2. Mallorca champ Alejandro Davidovich Fokina also won, beating Marton Fucsovics 7-6(3), 6-2, 6-3.