Sinner advances to Doha quarter-finals, clash with Mengsk Looms – Tennis Now
Jannik Sinner is making the most of his debut in Doha. The four-time Grand Slam champion reached the quarterfinals without dropping a set in the first round against Tomas Machac before defeating Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday.
Sinner, who withdrew from this year’s Australian Open due to Novak Djokovic, will face Jakub Mencic in the quarter-finals.
“I felt like I started really well in the first set and I didn’t have a lot of issues with my serve,” Sinner said.
The Italian was brought on in the second set and Popyrin held his own, keeping the match tied at ten. At that moment, Sinner broke serve first, bringing the score to 6-5, and then ended the game with a simple hold.
“I felt like he stepped up his game and I missed some easy shots and lost some rhythm and confidence,” Sinner said on the court. “I just tried to dig deep, especially with five men. He made some mistakes that helped me get the decisive break, but I’m still happy.
“You have to find different ways to win games.”
Sinner has now won 50 consecutive games against players ranked outside the top 50, and he improved to 2-1 against Popyrin, who entered Wednesday’s game ranked No. 53.
Sinner leads all players with 213 hard court wins since the start of 2021. Only Daniil Medvedev, who was defeated by Stefanos Tsitsipas earlier on Wednesday, has more than 200 hard-court wins in the period.
Hard court win leaders since the start of the 2021 season:
- Jannik Sinner 213
- Daniil Medvedev 202
- Taylor Fritz 170
- Alex de Minaur 164
- Andrei Rublev 162
- Alexander Zverev 162
Other results from Doha on Wednesday
Here are the singles results from Doha today (Wednesday, February 18, 2026):
Round of 16 results
- Stefanos Tsitsipas definition. Daniil Medvedev(4) (6-4, 6-4)
- Jannik Sinner(2) definition. Alexei Popyrin (6-3, 7-5)
- Jakub Mensik(6) definition. Zhang Zhizhen(6-4, 6-4)
- Arthur Fells(LL) definition. Quentin Harris(6-1, 7-6(7))
- Karen Khachanoff(7) definition. Marton Fucsovich (6-2, 4-6, 6-4)
- Jiri Lehka(8) definition. Zizou Berges (6-2, 6-2)
- Andrei Rublev(5) definition. Fabian Maroussan (6-4, 6-3)
