Jannik Sinner Sails into Second Week of Australian Open - UBITENNIS

Jannik Sinner Sails into Second Week of Australian Open

Jannik Sinner is into the second week of the Australian Open with a straight sets win over Marcos Giron.

By Anshu Taneja
4 Min Read
(@TheTennisLetter - Twitter)

Top seed Jannik Sinner breezed into the second week of the opening Grand Slam with a straightforward 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 over American Marcos Giron in the night match on the Rod Laver Arena, and was very satisfied with his performance, finishing off in just over two hours.

“The first goal is to go in the second week. I’m very happy to be here again,” said Sinner afterwards. “[It] felt like today was maybe the best match in the way of how I tried to play. I still made some mistakes, but it’s okay. I felt like I was hitting the ball a little bit better than in the previous rounds. I felt like today I was still missing some shots, but in a positive way. I went for shots. I tried to make some serve and volleys, some dropshots, trying to have a good feel with the court.  I’m quite happy. I want to raise my level in the next round match, but let’s see.”

The defending champion raced to a 3-0 lead in the opener mixing solid serving with powerful down the line backhands, along with some unforced errors by Giron. He took the first set with a 204km/h ace after 34 minutes but after taking a 4-2 lead in the second, found himself in trouble at 0-30 when serving out for the set. But four excellent points along with a beautiful forehand winner on setpoint gave him a two sets lead after which the result was never in doubt.

In the next round Sinner faces the winner of Miomir Kecmanovic and Holger Rune but is expecting a battle regardless of who he faces: “Holger I know slightly better. We always had tough matches in the past. If it’s Miomir, I know him slightly worse in the way because I didn’t play so many times against him. Whoever is going to be there deserves to be there. It’s going to be a tough match. We see how it goes.”

With veteran Frenchman Gale Monfils enjoying a resurgence late into his career, Sinner was later asked what it would take to plan for a career lasting over two decades and whether he would still be playing at the age of 38.

“This is a question I cannot answer. I don’t know. For sure you have to work a lot, especially when you’re young, to reach longevity. You have to prevent things. You have to work also very smart. I was someone who didn’t use many weights when I was a junior player – trying to prevent those injuries. You have to choose the right tournaments, when to play, when not to play.

There are many things what come together. We saw that also today with Gael, with Novak, many incredible players who are still so fit with their age. This gives us a different point of view. Of course, it’s important to win now, but it’s also important to keep the career and the body in a good shape the more you go on.”

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