LONDON — As well as Jannik Sinner is playing at Wimbledon, he doesn’t appear to need much in the way of help.
Still, the 23-year-old Italian got some Saturday when his opponent, Pedro Martinez, was dealing with a problematic shoulder and often put in first serves at so-so speeds.
Sinner, the top-ranked player on the ATP Tour, has dropped a Wimbledon record-tying total of only 17 games so far at this year’s edition of the the grass-court major tournament, made his way to the fourth round of the men’s singles bracket for the seventh consecutive Grand Slam event — he has collected three trophies in that span — and never was truly in trouble during a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Martinez.
The 28-year-old Spaniard is currently ranked 52nd and has never advanced beyond the third round at the All England Club.
“We all saw that he was struggling,” Sinner said, then noted about his own form: “First week couldn’t have gone better.”
Sinner is the second man in the Open Era, which began in 1968 as professional players joined amateurs at the biggest four tennis tournaments, to cede just 17 games through three completed matches at Wimbledon. The other player to do that, Jan Kodes, ended up losing in the semifinals in 1972.
For Sinner, there’s been zero sign of any sort of inability to move past last month’s French Open final, which he lost to budding rival Carlos Alcaraz in five sets despite taking the first two and holding three championship points.
Against Martinez, Sinner — who returned in May from a three-month doping suspension — went up 5-0 after 20 minutes. During that stretch, Martinez managed one winner, while Sinner accumulated 10.
That’s when Martinez took a medical timeout, and a trainer massaged the back of his right shoulder. He was delivering first serves as slow as 76 mph, compared with Sinner’s high of 133 mph.
That aspect of Martinez’s game improved incrementally, but the only moment of intrigue at Centre Court came in the second set, about 75 minutes in, with Sinner up a break and serving at 4-3. That’s where Martinez managed to accrue his first four break points.
Sinner stayed as calm as can be — “I don’t think Sinner’s changed expressions once in this match,” John McEnroe observed on BBC’s telecast — and erased all four of those chances, held for 5-3, then broke to end the set.
Soon enough, Sinner — twice an Australian Open champion, once a U.S. Open champion and a 2023 semifinalist at Wimbledon — had secured his place among the final 16 in men’s singles and was headed into a fourth-round contest Monday against Grigor Dimitrov, the No. 19 seed.
Also Saturday, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic picked up the 100th singles victory of his Wimbledon career — only retired women’s legend Martina Navratilova (120) and former fellow Big Three member Roger Federer (105) have more than the 38-year-old Serbian star — and other men’s winners included American player Ben Shelton, who is seeded 10th, No. 11 Alex de Minaur, No. 22 Flavio Cobolli and 36-year-old Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion.
Djokovic beat Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4, to extend his quest for an eighth Wimbledon crown and will next face de Minaur.
“Any history that I make in my favorite tournament, I’m blessed,” Djokovic, making 20th appearance at the event, said in an on-court interview.
Djokovic has lost the past two Wimbledon finals to Alcaraz, the 22-year-old Spaniard who won Friday to secure his spot in the fourth round and is on the opposite half of the bracket as the No. 2 seed.
Meanwhile, for the ninth time in as many years, there will be a different women’s singles champion. That’s because 2024 winner Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic was eliminated by No. 10 Emma Navarro of the United States, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, and 2022 winner Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan lost to No. 23 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Serena Williams in 2016 was Wimbledon’s last repeat champion in women’s singles.
Garbiñe Muguruza won in 2017, Angelique Kerber won in 2018, Simona Halep won in 2019 and Ash Barty won in 2021– along with Williams, all four have since retired — before Rybakina in 2022, Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and then Krejcikova. (The tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, an 18-year-old Russian, moved into the second week with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Hailey Baptiste of the United States, and five-time major title winner Iga Swiatek of Poland overwhelmed American player Danielle Collins, 6-2, 6-3. Another fourth-round women’s matchup was set up when No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro advanced.
Navarro describes herself as “stubborn” and her tennis as “scrappy,” and the 24-year-old’s attitude and game both were in just the right places Saturday. She wasdown a set and a break at 2-1 in the second before turning things around.
“Something I take a lot of pride in is being tough and fighting till the last point, no matter what the circumstances are. It’s something I always try to do,” said Navarro, who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA Division I women’s singles title for the University of Virginia.
“I could never live with myself if I ever gave up. It’s just not in my nature. I don’t think it’s in any of my family members’ nature to ever give up on anything. I guess we’re a stubborn bunch.”
Krejcikova faded in the third set, getting her blood pressure checked at the changeover after Navarro broke her to lead 3-2 at No. 1 Court. Krejcikova ate a banana and drank liquids during the medical timeout, while Navarro walked to her guest box and spoke to her coach during the break in action.
When play resumed, Krejcikova showed clear signs of being in distress, often leaning over and placing her hands on her knees between points.
“I was actually feeling worse and worse,” said Krejcikova, who was seeded 17th but now will tumble out of the top 70 in the WTA Tour rankings. “It’s very sad for me and very unfortunate.”
Most points were decided by what Krejcikova did. That’s how she ended up with 34 winners (21 more than Navarro) and 53 unforced errors. Remarkably, Navarro finished with just 11 unforced errors.
This is hardly Navarro’s first big win on a big stage. Last year, she eliminated fellow American player Coco Gauff at Wimbledon to reach her first major quarterfinal. Then, in a rematch a couple of months later, Navarro won again at the U.S. Open — where Gauff was the 2023 champion — en route to her first Grand Slam semifinal.
Navarro is one of four top-10 seeds left in the upset-filled women’s bracket. The others are Andreeva — her fourth-round opponent Monday — Swiatek and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won her third-round match Friday against Emma Raducanu.