MELBOURNE, Australia — After losing a set level within the second tiebreaker with an ill-conceived drop shot, Jannik Sinner regained focus rapidly Monday and commenced his Australian Open title protection with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Nicolas Jarry.
After all of the pre-tournament consideration on the 2024 doping instances of Sinner and longtime girls’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek, each began the 12 months’s first Grand Slam match about the identical time on close by courts on Day 2.
High-ranked Sinner needed to grind for 2 lengthy, tiebreak units in opposition to No. 35-ranked Jarry, a 29-year-old from Chile, earlier than hitting his stride within the third with two service breaks on Rod Laver Area.
Sinner has received 14 of his final 16 tiebreaks; he is the second top-seeded man within the Open Period to play a tiebreak in every of his first two units of a serious, becoming a member of Rafael Nadal (2010 US Open vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili).
“It was a really shut one as a result of the primary units, they’ll go each methods,” Sinner stated after extending his profitable streak to 16 matches relationship again to October, together with 14 consecutive straight-set victories. “Within the third set once I broke it the primary time, that gave me a bit little bit of room to breathe.
“I am glad how I dealt with the very robust scenario.”
Sinner has bought a very good document at Melbourne Park in that division. He rallied from two units down in final 12 months’s closing to beat Daniil Medvedev for his first Grand Slam title, coming off a semifinal upset of 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.
Monday marked Sinner’s fifteenth consecutive main win on onerous courts as he turned the fourth man since 2000 to win that many Grand Slam hard-court matches in a row, becoming a member of Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Djokovic.
The Italian has received 29 consecutive units relationship again to the third spherical of the Shanghai Masters in October.
He’ll subsequent face both Japan’s Taro Daniel or native wild card Tristan Schoolkate for a spot within the third spherical.
After a stop-start Day 1 on Sunday, together with greater than six hours of rain, Monday’s packed program was additionally set to characteristic matches for Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
ESPN Analysis, The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.