Indian Wells: Sensational Sinner close to surpassing one Federer record after unblemished start to 2024

Jannik Sinner continued his commendable start to 2024 with a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over Jiri Lehecka at the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals on Thursday. The Australian Open champion sealed the win in 84 minutes, thus continuing his unblemished season in which the Italian prodigy has won 16 straight matches — 19 in total if the 22-year-old’s final matches of 2023 are included.

After comfortably beating Lehecka, Sinner moved level with Roger Federer’s 16 wins at the start of the 2006 season, which saw the Swiss legend win the Qatar Open title, Australian Open and reach the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships before losing to nemesis Rafael Nadal.

Sinner had been level with Andre Agassi and Novak Djokovic’s 15-match winning starts to a season heading into Thursday’s quarter-final, with the American’s achievement coming in 1995, while the Serbian’s 2023 start bade well for the rest of the year.

Another win for the Italian sensation at Indian Wells moves him level with Pete Sampras (1997), Djokovic (2013) and Federer (2018), but still three wins shy of Nadal’s 20-match winning run to start the year in 2020, nine adrift of Djokovic’s 26 straight wins in 2020 and significantly behind the outstanding Serbian superstar, who won 41 consecutive matches at the start of 2011 before losing to Federer at the French Open in four sets.

Defeating Lehecka means Sinner will face the winner of the last-eight match between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, who meet in a rematch of the quarter-final encounter Down Under in January.

Sinner could leapfrog Alcaraz in the ATP Rankings if he outdoes the Spaniard at Indian Wells.