Jannik Sinner’s chances to win the Italian Open were stopped by a surprising moment.
Jannik Sinner is going for a big win this weekend at the Italian Open. He wants to become the second and fastest player ever to win the Career Golden Masters by taking the title. But, there’s a funny little thing that might stand in his way.
Today, Sinner won a tough three-set match against Daniil Medvedev, after rain stopped their semi-final yesterday. Sinner has been on fire lately, winning 33 Masters 1000 matches in a row, beating Novak Djokovic’s record. He’s also the first Italian man in nearly 70 years to reach back-to-back Rome finals — the last was Nicole Pietrangeli in 1958.
At just 24 years old, Sinner aims to be the second and youngest man to win all nine Masters 1000 events, a feat Djokovic completed in 2018. If he wins Sunday’s final against Casper Ruud, he’ll set a new record for youngest to do it. But here’s the quirky thing spotted by Tennis Channel’s Brett Haber: Sinner has only lost sets in 2026 to players whose country flags have red, white, and blue.
This started at the Australian Open, where he dropped sets to American Eliot Spizzirri and Serbian Novak Djokovic. Since then, all players who have taken sets from him — including Medvedev and French player Benjamin Bonzi — have those same colors in their flags. Even Jakub Menšik from Czechia, who’s beaten Sinner this year, wears outfits with his country’s red, white, and blue colors.
Now, Sinner’s final opponent Casper Ruud is from Norway, which also has a red, white, and blue flag. Ruud is known as a strong clay court player and is playing very well. According to Haber, maybe Ruud’s big advantage isn’t just his skill, but those flag colors could be a strange factor!
Ruud has only lost one set on his way to the final, the same as Sinner, even though he’s ranked lower. Sinner had earlier won the Madrid and Monte Carlo Masters without dropping a set, beating top players like Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner also became the second man ever to reach the finals of all three clay court Masters in the same season, joining Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay court player, who did this many times.
As Sinner steps into this important final, he’s chasing an amazing achievement with the Career Golden Masters. But we’ll have to wait and see if Ruud’s great form — and his country’s red, white, and blue flag — will slow him down.