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