Jannik Sinner continued to navigate a serene course through the choppy waters of Wimbledon with another straight-sets win.
Pedro Martinez was his latest victim, the Spanish world number 52 – who was carrying a shoulder injury – winning just five games in a 6-1 6-3 6-1 defeat on Centre Court.
While 19 seeds perished over the opening two rounds in the men’s draw, Sinner has looked unsinkable.
In reaching the fourth round, the 23-year-old Italian has dropped only 17 games from his three matches.
Roger Federer previously held the record for the least games lost in the first three rounds at Wimbledon, 19 in 2004.
“I watched matches of him and the classics, the all-time classics,” said Sinner.
“The tennis was for sure a little bit different in a way of more serve and volleys back in the days. The grass was different.
“But yeah, obviously I enjoyed it so much, watching Roger play. I never played against him in an official match. But in the other way, how they played, it was amazing.
“About the games lost, this is whatever. I’m not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other.”
When Bjorn Borg won the title without dropping a set in 1976 he had conceded 27 games over the first three matches, while Federer – the only other man to achieve the feat, in 2017 – had lost 28.
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The world number one is yet to have his serve broken and has faced just eight break points, four of which were repelled against Martinez.
He has spent only five hours and 23 minutes on court so far, which is six minutes less than his French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz last month.
Sinner will face Bulgarian 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who has had to retire from matches through injury at the last three grand slams but looks in tip-top shape after reaching the fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (0) win over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner.
Another Italian raced through with Flavio Cobolli dispatching Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2.
Cobolli will meet Marin Cilic while a third star from Italy, Lorenzo Sonego, battled past American Brandon Nakashima in a five-setter lasting five hours and four minutes on a packed – and extremely loud – Court 14.
Sonego will take on American 10th seed Ben Shelton, who is another player yet to drop a set after a 6-3 7-6 (4) 6-2 win over Marton Fucsovics of Hungary.
