Sinner Wins on home soil
By : Osabuohien Imuetinyanosa.
Four weeks down, Sinner ,23 left the racket ever since he won in Shanghai and now with a sluggish start against De Minaur.
De Minaur tournament debut was fascinating but not against Sinner who immediately cancelled his advantage, backing that up with two love holds and a break of his own.
Having served out the first set, Sinner controlled the second, breaking in the fifth game after two further holds to love. He had raced to 0-40 on his opponent’s serve, but after a brief pause while an ill spectator was attended to, De Minaur stemmed the flow of points by taking the game to deuce, only for Sinner to break at the fourth opportunity.
He wasted no time in wrapping up the win, serving out a flawless game with his eighth ace of the night.
Sinner now holds a 8-0 record against 25-year-old De Minaur, who has taken just a solitary set across all meetings.
“I’m very happy,” Sinner said. “I started off with some unforced errors, he was playing great in the beginning of the match. I just tried to stay there mentally knowing that at some point my tennis will arrive. It arrived quite early then and I started to return very well.
“I’m very pleased with the win and hopefully it can give me the confidence for the next one.”
Meanwhile in the doubles, Britain’s Henry Patten and his Finnish doubles partner Harri Heliovaara started their tournament with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 victory over the second seeds, Marcel Granollers of Spain and Argentine Horacio Zeballos
Sinner finished as runner-up to Novak Djokovic at last year’s ATP Finals and has dominated this season, winning his first two Grand Slams – at the Australian and US opens – among a Tour-leading seven titles in 2024, all amid an ongoing doping controversy.
