Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning against Germany's Alexander Zverev during the Monte Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament semi-final tennis match on Court Rainier III at the Monte-Carlo Country Club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, south-eastern France (Photo by Thibaud Moritz / AFP)
Monte Carlo: World No.2 Jannik Sinner eased his way into the final of the Monte Carlo Masters for the first time with a clinical 6-1, 6-4 semi-final win over Alexander Zverev on Saturday.
The Italian becomes the first player to reach all three finals of the season's first three Masters 1000 events since Novak Djokovic in 2015.
Roger Federer, in 2006, and Rafael Nadal, 2011, are the only two other players to achieve the feat.
Sinner will face either world No.1 and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or Valentin Vacherot, ranked 23 in the world, who meet later on Saturday.
If it is Alcaraz, it will be the first meeting this season between the world's top two players which would decide who will be world No.1 come Monday when the new ATP rankings are released.
As in Indian Wells and Miami, Sinner, 24, had the measure of Zverev who has not prevailed in their meetings since the round of 16 at the US Open in September 2023.
Extremely aggressive from the start, Sinner blew the German away in the opening set, breaking him three times and wrapping it up in 34 minutes.
In the second set, the German world No.3 put up more resistance, finding his first serve again, but he still had to battle every time to hold.
He finally folded after 1hr 22min on another blistering forehand from Sinner, who has lost only one set in his last 21 matches at Masters 1000 events.
