Jannik Sinner won his 200th match of his career as he booked a semi-final against Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in Rotterdam.
The Australian Open champion achieved another milestone in his career as he won a 200th career match in Rotterdam.
However the Italian would have liked it to be in better circumstances as Milos Raonic retired in the third game of the second set.
Sinner won the opening set in the tiebreak 7-4 before the Canadian was forced to retire from the contest.
After the match Sinner explained how mental strength was the key to staying in the match as he wished a quick recovery for Raonic, “He is for sure one of the toughest opponents to play against,” Sinner told the ATP website.
“This is a very unusual challenge you have on court. He serves incredibly well. I was up a break first set and I missed a couple of things. From the past two rounds I was struggling a little bit to find myself on the court. Also today, I felt like he was playing better than me the first set.
“I just tried to stay somehow mentally, but at the end of the day this is not how you want to win this match. He had so many injuries throughout his career and hopefully he will have a speedy recovery.”
It’s now 200 wins on the tour for Sinner as he has won all ten of his matches this season and becomes the seventh Italian male to win 200 matches on the ATP tour.
Now Sinner will look to go one better than last year as he looks to overtake Daniil Medvedev in the world rankings this week.
However to get to the final in Rotterdam won’t be easy for Sinner as he takes on home favourite Tallon Griekspoor in the last four.
Speaking ahead of the contest Sinner spoke about the atmosphere and conditions heading into the match against Griekspoor, “It was really tough,” Sinner said when talking about his win over the Dutchman last year.
“I remember the last set was a tie-break, so these are the kinds of matches where you also have to enjoy the atmosphere. I’m sure it’s going to be full, so that’s also one of the reasons why I love to play here. The fans are incredible. Tomorrow is a new day, anything can happen, so I’m looking forward to it.
“I think the situation here is, the courts are quite heavy, but it changes a lot with new balls and used balls. So you have to change also, but this is the fun of the sport.
“Every week or every tournament you play in a different situation and I’m happy to be in the semi-final trying to play some good tennis tomorrow.”
Heading into the match, Sinner has a 2-0 head-to-head record against Griekspoor.
