MONTREAL: Jannik Sinner bolted out of the blocks in his first ATP match since Wimbledon with the defending champion defeating Borna Coric 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday at the Montreal Masters.
The Italian world number one last competed in the All-England Club quarter-finals a month ago, where he was treated for illness in a loss to Daniil Medvedev.
Sinner missed the Olympics due to tonsillitis and arrived a week ago in Canada to get accustomed to match play again.
It has worked well as he and Briton Jack Draper have reached the doubles quarter-finals.
“Playing doubles helped to get the match feeling back,” Sinner said after his 96 minute-defeat of Croat Coric. “I’m hitting the ball quite cleanly, trying to get better each day.” The 22-year-old Australian Open champion called his singles start “positive”.
“I’m very happy with the performance,” he said. “The match felt closer than the score. I had to save a break point in the second set — if he had made it, the match could have potentially changed.
“I had a good mindset today. I’ll try to keep that going.”
German second seed Alexander Zverev dominated in advancing to the third round as a trio of other seeds went down to defeat.
Zverev crushed Australian Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-1 after overcoming the challenging switch from Paris Olympic clay to fast North American hardcourt.
The 2017 champion in Canada took a victory as third seed Medvedev, eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 10th seed Tommy Paul all lost.
Seeded winners included number five Casper Ruud, who beat James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, and number 13 Dane Holger Rune, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-3.
Zverev, a Paris quarter-finalist, won his tour-leading 48th match of the season.
Medvedev was overwhelmed as Alejandro Davidovich Fokina made a reset after losing the second set to earn a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 win.
The Spaniard had lost four previous matches against a player whose last title came in Rome 15 months ago.
Former world number four Kei Nishikori advanced to a Masters third round for the first time in three years with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of eighth seed Tsitsipas that took just 78 minutes.
Japan’s former US Open finalist, who has had several seasons of hip injury drama, is playing with a protected ranking of 576, but making comeback progress this week.
Nishikori (2016) and Tsitsipas (2018) have both played Canadian finals, with the Asian earning his first top-20 match win since 2021.
Fifth seed Andrey Rublev matched his Canadian career-best with a third round spot after defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
He will next face Brandon Nakashima, who put out 10th-seeded Olympic double medallist Paul 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 with nine aces and five breaks of serve.
TOP SEED GAUFF OUSTS WANG
Meanwhile, US top seed Coco Gauff advanced to the third round of the Toronto Masters with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over China’s Wang Yafan.
In her first match since being ousted from the Paris Olympics by Croatian Donna Vekic, the 20-year-old American fired six aces and connected on 60 percent of her first serves to dispatch Wang in 88 minutes.
“It was difficult,” Gauff said. “I think I made some more errors than I’m used to but overall I think I was building the points the correct way. I just have to do better making those last two balls. “Overall, I’m happy with how I played.”
Up next for the reigning US Open champion will be Russian 14th seed Diana Shnaider, who rallied to defeat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
World number two Gauff is making the transition to hardcourts after a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon and an Olympic stint on clay at Roland Garros.
“It would be special to win here, especially I’m trying to get my groove on hardcourt,” Gauff said. “I’m not expecting much but I’m just trying to play some good tennis.”
Gauff, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian and French Opens, has won six of her seven career WTA titles on hardcourts, the most recent at Auckland in January. Her lone exception is a clay crown at Italy in 2021.
Two-time reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka advanced as well, eliminating China’s Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-2 in 81 minutes.
Next in the world number three’s path is Britain’s 33rd ranked Katie Boulter, who advanced when 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia retired from their match after only two games with a lower back injury.
US seventh seed Madison Keys retired with a left thigh injury down 3-0 in the third set against compatriot Peyton Stearns.
Latvian fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko rallied to beat Spain’s Paula Badosa, last week’s WTA Washington winner, by 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Up next for the world number 11 is US lucky loser Taylor Townsend.
Russian sixth seed Liudmila Samsonova reached the round of 16 by ousting Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima 6-4, 6-2 while Ukraine’s 11th-seeded Marta Kostyuk eliminated compatriot Elina Svitolina 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024
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