Jannik Sinner has continued his dominant French Open campaign after beating Andrey Rublev in straight sets.
Sinner is one of the French Open favourites for the title alongside defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.
The world number one is still yet to drop a set in Paris, despite Sinner doing something unusual against Rublev.
As a result of his latest victory, Sinner has now won 17 consecutive Grand Slam matches after winning both the US Open and Australian Open titles back-to-back.
Mats Wilander predicts what Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would have done against Jannik Sinner
Sinner beat Rublev, 6-1 6-3 6-4, in the night session match on Court Philippe-Chatrier and has dropped just 30 games in the 12 sets he has played so far in Paris.
When reacting to his latest French Open victory, three-time former champion Mats Wilander told TNT Sports that Sinner is the most aggressive baseline player he has ever seen.
The former world number one also questioned what Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would try and do to combat Sinner’s game.
“Can I say speechless? Because he’s unbelievable,” began Wilander. “He literally doesn’t wait for the ball to go anywhere. He wants to take it as early as possible on both sides, especially on the backhand side.
“I’ve never seen anyone be this aggressive from the baseline. And he’s looking to come forwards, too, which I love.
“Carlos Alcaraz is aggressive, but in a different way. Can you throw up one and sort of mix up the pace? I think that’s the only chance you have, is to mix up the pace once in a while, but it has to be hit at the right time, and it can’t be hit when you’re defending.
“It has to be hit when you are in charge of the rally, which happens very rarely, you can throw up something with a lot of top spin and you can potentially push Jannik back, and then you can take the next one, because hopefully there’ll be a short one.
“But really honestly, I don’t even know how to how you would play against Jannik Sinner. I’m thinking, what would Roger Federer do? He would slice and dice and he would keep the ball low, and he would roll up a high one, maybe. What would Rafa do? Not sure. He would try to wear him out, I suppose, but he’s just playing unbelievably well. His movement, he’s flying around the court. I mean, it’s Spider-Man, to me. It’s just unbelievable how athletic he is.
“It starts with the serve these days. He’s changed it over the years and it’s much better. He’s returning brilliantly. He takes the ball so early. I’ve never seen a player that is as aggressive as him from the baseline.
“Players like John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg were more aggressive coming to the net, but in terms of aggressive baseliner, Jannik Sinner is definitely the most aggressive I’ve ever seen.”
Did Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal ever play Jannik Sinner?
Neither Federer nor Nadal will get to play this version of Sinner after both players have retired from tennis in recent years.
That being said, Nadal did play Sinner on three occasions on clay in 2020 and 2021.
Nadal beat Sinner in straight sets every time they played, with two of those three meetings actually coming at the French Open.
While it appears unlikely that Sinner will be able to win 14 French Open titles, he will certainly have his eyes set on lifting the Coupe des Mousquetaires for the first time in 2025.
Sinner’s quarter-final opponent will be Alexander Bublik, who stunned Jack Draper to achieve his best ever Grand Slam result.
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