Jannik Sinner recovers to battle past Alexei Popyrin to reach Qatar Open quarter-finals - ‘I lost a bit of rhythm’
By Matt Jones
Published 18/02/2026 at 21:07 GMT
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Jannik Sinner continued on his merry way at the Qatar Open, where he racked up a 50th successive win against a player ranked outside the world's top 50 by beating Alexei Popyrin in straight sets. The Italian won 6-3 7-5 as his opponent failed to bring up a break point. Sinner said he had to "dig deep" to get over the winning line as he booked a quarter-final showdown with Jakub Mensik.
Watch: Top 5 moments of Sinner's Australian Open run
Video credit: TNT Sports
Jannik Sinner said he had to "dig deep" to book his place in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open.
The Italian followed up his victory over Tomas Machac with a strong performance against Alexei Popyrin, winning 6-3 7-5.
Sinner is playing in his first tournament since the Australian Open and keeps the World No. 2 on a collision course with Carlos Alcaraz.
Should he get that far, Sinner looks in good touch, as he breezed through this encounter without facing a break point.
But he insists the contest was not as easy as it might have looked.
"I feel like I started off very well in the first set," he said in his on-court interview. "Not so many problems with my service games.
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"But after I struggled a bit. I felt like he raised his level and I lost a bit of rhythm and confidence. I just tried to dig deep… I’m very happy. You have to find different ways to win matches."
Sinner was particularly strong behind his own serve, holding to love twice in the first set.
He made the breakthrough in the sixth game, as Popyrin lost three successive points to hand his opponent a 4-2 advantage.
The Italian motored through the remainder of the set from there to move into the driving seat.
Things were a little closer in the second and it looked like a tie break might be needed to decide the winner. But Popyrin's serve let him down at 5-5, with Sinner taking advantage to reel off three successive points, before closing out the match to 15.
The contest in total lasted 1 hour 25 minutes, with the Australian perhaps tiring in what was his first second round match since October.
Sinner, on the other hand, was notching up his 50th win in a row against a player ranked outside the world's top 50.
Not since losing to Dusan Lajovic in Cincinnati in 2023 has he been beaten by an opponent ranking 51st or lower.
And Sinner added: "I respect every player, but I always try to play my best tennis. The ranking, at the end of the day, is just a number. Everyone is playing [with] high quality.
"Especially when the opponents don’t have much to lose, you always have to stay very focused."
Sinner will now face sixth seed Jakub Mensik in the quarter-finals.
It will be the first time the Italian has taken on the 20-year-old Czech, who beat Zhang Zhizhen 6-3 6-2 to book his spot in the last eight.
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