It is the first time since Paolo Bertolucci and Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros in 1973 that two Italian men have reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam.
Sinner, who also reached the last eight at the French Open in 2020, played superbly in a high quality match at Rod Laver Arena, taking control after the first set tiebreak.
The 20-year-old from South Tyrol credited the experience gained throughout last season, when he won four titles and qualified for the ATP Tour Finals, as crucial to his development.
“Last year, for me, was a long year; many, many tournaments for me for the first time,” he said.
“I [gained] a lot of experience in the last couple of months and I think I’ve grown as a player and as a person.”
Sinner is set to clash with fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece, who survived a gruelling five-set epic with American Taylor Fritz on Monday night, twice coming from a set behind to win 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
World No. 7 Matteo Berrettini moved into the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday night after riding his luck to a crucial first-set break against Pablo Carreno Busta, which set the 25-year-old Roman on course for a 7-5, 7-6(4) 6-4 victory.
The Wimbledon finalist is delighted to reach the last eight at Melbourne Park after last year being forced to withdraw from his fourth-round match with Tsitsipas due to an abdominal injury.
“It was really tough last year; I really wanted to play, but I couldn’t with the tear in the ab,” he said.
“But I believe there is a reason for everything that happens and I’ve been wishing to come back as soon as possible and the way I won today shows how much I care about this tournament.”
Berrettini, who saw just 50 per cent of his serves come back into play in the first two sets, will play Frenchman Gael Monfils on Tuesday night at Rod Laver Arena.
