Italian Open 2026 Day Six Recap

Day six at the Foro Italico delivered a mix of predictable dominance and feel-good stories.

Jannik Sinner cruised into the fourth round with a ruthless performance, while Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino produced the performance of his career to set up a highly-anticipated all-Italian showdown against the world No.1.

The day also saw continued success for the underdogs, with Thiago Agustin Tirante pulling off a strong upset over Flavio Cobolli, while Basilashvili (Q) and Landaluce (LL) booked their surprise places in the fourth round.

Full summary below.

Day five Italian Open 2026 round of 32 results

Key Match Recap

Jannik Sinner (1) def. Alexei Popyrin 6-2 6-0

The world number 1 was in ruthless form, producing a dominant straight sets victory to reach the fourth round. Sinner barely put a foot wrong, hitting accurate dribble shots and controlling the baseline exchanges.

With this victory, he extended his Masters 1000 winning streak to 30 matches and joined Novak Djokovic as only the second player to win his first 25 Masters matches in a season. He will face Italian Andrea Pellegrino next.

Popyrin beat Sinner a few years ago in Madrid, but even winning points looked like an uphill battle for him here. Unfortunately, Sinner has zero competition right now.

Andrea Pellegrino (Q) def. Frances Tiafoe (20) 7-6(8) 6-1

The fairytale continues to the Italian qualifier. Ranked number 155 in the world, Pellegrino saved several set points in a tense first-set tiebreak before cruising through in the second set. This is one of the biggest wins of his career, and he becomes one of the lowest-rated players to reach Rome’s last 16 this century. A big boost for the home crowd, and he will now face Sinner at Campo Centrale, where his journey ends 😁

Martin Landaluce (LL) def. Mattia Bellucci 6-4 6-3

The 20-year-old Spanish lucky loser kept her strong week going with a confident victory over home favorite Bellucci. Landaluce has made the most of his lucky loser status as he tries to replicate what he did in Miami on clay.

Nikoloz Basilashvili (Q) def. Brandon Nakashima (30) 7-6(5) 6-4

Another impressive win for the veteran in the Georgian qualifier. Basilashvili backed up his earlier upset against Ben Shelton with a solid straight sets win over Nakashima.

He’s having a career week in Rome and is always dangerous with his crunching style of play, offering something a little different to what most players are serving up these days.

Andrey Rublev (12) def. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (21) 6-4 6-4

A clean and efficient performance from Rublev. He controlled the match well against a dangerous opponent and safely made it into the fourth round of a Masters 1000 for the first time this year.

Arguably his best win of the season, as he has lost to all comers, and the last time he beat someone ranked in the top 20 was in Cincinnati last year (Popyrin).

Daniil Medvedev (7) def. Pablo Llamas Ruiz (Q) 3-6 6-4 6-2

Medvedev had to fight back from a set down but eventually pulled through to reach the fourth round for the fourth consecutive year. It marked his 100th career Masters 1000 victory, and he has done well in Madrid and Rome since they went to the two-week format. Dark horse? Maybe, but I doubt he beats Sinner.

Thiago Agustin Tirante def. Flavio Cobolli (10) 6-3 6-4

Big upset at home. Tirante took out the 10th seeded Italian with impressive firepower. Cobolli is an explosive player himself, but he was surprised and overpowered by the Argentine, whose forehand + serve did a lot of damage.

Cobolli is still a little too streaky for my taste, and I don’t see him winning many games where he has to figure out a way to play on the fly.

Highlights

Soon.

Italian Open 2026 Day 7 Round of 16 matches