Jannik Sinner reached his fifth consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal on Sunday, and he has done it without playing a single seeded opponent. The defending champion and world No. 1 beat Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3, 7-6(0), 6-3 on Centre Court to reach the last eight for the fifth straight year, improving to 23-4 in his career at the All England Club. He has not dropped a set since the opening round.
The path. Sinner’s route to the quarterfinals has been the softest available to a top seed. He was pushed to five sets by Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round — the only set he has conceded all fortnight — before straight-set wins over Portugal’s Nuno Borges, American Jenson Brooksby and Mochizuki. None of the four is seeded. Brooksby, at world No. 81, was the highest-ranked of them; Mochizuki, a qualifier ranked No. 151, was the lowest.
The draw around him. The seeded structure that was supposed to funnel a contender into Sinner’s quarter did not hold. When the draw was made, No. 8 seed Daniil Medvedev projected as his quarterfinal opponent. Instead Sinner will face Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, an unseeded 36-year-old ranked No. 74 who eliminated Medvedev earlier in the tournament. Struff, who reached a career high of No. 21 in 2023, is into his first Grand Slam quarterfinal after advancing when Hubert Hurkacz retired from the fifth set of their fourth-round match.
The result is unusual for a defending champion. Reaching the quarterfinals of a major without meeting a seed reflects both Sinner’s own section of the draw and the attrition elsewhere in the top half, where lower-ranked players cleared out the seeds who might otherwise have stood in his way.
Still to prove. The absence of a marquee win cuts both ways. Sinner has spent little time under pressure, conceding one set in four matches and preserving energy in the second week. He also arrived at Wimbledon with no grass-court match play, having been out of action since early June, and his level has been described as short of his best through the early rounds. The draw has not yet asked the question of whether he is back to the form that won him the title in 2025.
That test may still come. The other top-half quarterfinal pairs three-time champion Novak Djokovic with third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, and the winner would meet the Sinner-Struff survivor in the semifinals. For now, the world No. 1 is through to the last eight having faced none of the players the draw was built to send his way.
