Jannik Sinner takes aim at Madrid Open chiefs immediately after beating Cameron Norrie | Tennis | Sport

Jannik Sinner started his day with a straight-set victory over Cameron Norrie at the Madrid Open on Tuesday morning. Many were surprised to see the world No. 1 in the very first slot on the Manolo Santana Stadium, scheduled to face Norrie first thing at 11am local time. But Sinner wasn’t fussed about his early start and beat the British No. 1 6-2 7-5 to reach his second career quarter-final at the Caja Magica.

Sinner had played his first two matches in the last day session slot at 4pm local time, and the top seed later revealed that he was almost given that schedule again, but it was a toss-up between himself and Spanish wildcard Rafael Jodar, who had a very late finish against Joao Fonseca a couple of days ago.

Jodar has become the man of the moment in his home city of Madrid, and faced fellow 19-year-old star Fonseca in the last night session slot on Sunday. He clinched a 7-6(4) 4-6 6-1 victory shortly before 1am local time, and Sinner thought it was right that the Spaniard had more time to rest before his fourth-round match.

Addressing his 11am start on Tuesday, the four-time Major winner said: “Yeah, quite unusual for me. I don’t know when was the last time I played at 11am. But, for me, it doesn’t matter. I try to do my best. You know, for me, there was a question if, or me or Jodar plays at 4pm. But I think it’s right that he plays at 4pm, he finished very, very late.”

However, Sinner believes Madrid Open organisers need to tweak their night session, and doesn’t agree with them staging two matches from 8pm. “But in the same time, I feel like we need to make some adjustments with scheduling out of today,” he added.

“Two matches from 8pm, it’s very late, even though you have one day in between. Still, it’s very, very late. You finish at 1.30am, you need to eat, you need to have treatment, so it’s very late. But we try to adapt ourselves, our bodies, our minds. From my side, it was a good performance today.”

And Sinner later doubled down on his comments, claiming organisers “couldn’t pretend” that two night session matches wouldn’t go long. “For me, it doesn’t matter. But I heard some people talk about, you know, the scheduling, me playing at 11am and Jodar at 4pm,” he said.

“I think it’s good, because it’s tough when you schedule two matches starting from 8pm. You cannot pretend that matches are over in one and a half hours each, and at 11pm the game is over. When Jodar played in the night, it was very, very late, going on court around 11pm, finish around 1am, 1.15am. In my point of view, that’s too late. Today was common sense that I play at 11am and then Jodar at 4pm, because he needs also a little bit more of rest. But whenever they put me, I’m fine. I’m happy to play at 11am. I’m happy to play a little bit later.

“So yeah, I think there’s couple of things. In my point of view, it’s good that they change it. You know, because also for our body and mind, you know, going on court at 11pm and you play at midnight, past midnight, it’s not easy. Then also, even if you have a day off, the fans they see only us on court, and then we finish at 1.15pm. But then you have press conference, recovery, eating, treatment, you know, you don’t go to bed until 4am or 5am. It messes up the whole day. So I think we can do better, definitely, in this point of view.”

Sinner may well face Jodar in the next round. The teenage wildcard will play Vit Kopriva for a place in the quarter-finals in that 4pm local time slot on Tuesday, and the winner will be rewarded with a meeting with the world No. 1.

The Italian has never been beyond the quarter-finals in Madrid but he’s looking to become the first man ever to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles this week. Sinner has not lost a match since February and has won three titles on the trot in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo. He also ended 2025 by winning the Paris Masters.

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