MELBOURNE, Jan 13: After wasting a set point in the second tiebreaker with an ill-conceived drop shot, Jannik Sinner regained focus quickly Monday and began his Australian Open title defense with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Nicolas Jarry.
After all the pre-tournament attention on the 2024 doping cases of Sinner and long-time women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek, both started the year’s first Grand Slam tournament about the same time on nearby courts on Day 2.
Top-ranked Sinner had to grind for two long, tiebreak sets against No. 35-ranked Jarry, a 29-year-old from Chile, before hitting his stride in the third with two service breaks on Rod Laver Arena.
“It was a very close one because the first sets, they can go both ways,” Sinner said after extending his winning streak to 16 matches, including 14 consecutive straight-set victories.
“In the third set when I broke it the first time, that gave me a little bit of room to breathe.
“I’m happy how I handled the very tough situation.” Sinner has got a good record at Melbourne Park in that department.
He rallied from two sets down in last year’s final to beat Daniil Medvedev for his first Grand Slam title, coming off a semifinal upset of 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.
SWIATEK, GAUFF BEGIN WITH VICTORIES
Swiatek, a five-time major winner from Poland, fended off top-ranked doubles player Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-4 on John Cain Arena.
Coco Gauff had a little difficulty adjusting to the sun at one end of Rod Laver Arena in Monday’s first marquee match and dropped an early service game before quickly settling into a rhythm in a 6-3, 6-3 win over 2020 champion Sofia Kenin.
Third-seeded Gauff won the title at the WTA Finals last November and started this season by helping the US to victory at the United Cup last week, a run that gives her a chance to move atop the rankings.
ALEX MICHELSEN UPSETS TSITSIPAS IN ROUND 1
Alex Michelsen produced the biggest win so far of his fledgling career to upset 2023 runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of the Australian Open, and he knew instinctively where credit was due.
The 20-year-old American overcame nerves on his serve in the fourth set before clinching a 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win Monday over Tsitsipas, a 26-year-old from Greece who has a career-high No. 3 ranking and has contested two Grand Slam finals.
Michelsen started playing tennis around age 3 and hit most days as a kid with his mother, Sondra, a school teacher who played college tennis.His win over Tsitsipas was Michelsen’s first against a player ranked in the top 20 at a Grand Slam.
AILING TIAFOE PICKS UP TOUGH WIN
Frances Tiafoe threw up during his first-round match at the Australian Open on Monday along the way to a five-set victory and said afterward he might have quit if this had been just a run-of-the-mill tournament.
The 17th-seeded Tiafoe, who turns 27 in a week, managed to win the topsy-turvy match against Arthur Rinderknech of France 7-6 (2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in 4 hours, 8 minutes.
“If it was any other, probably, event, I probably would have let it go,” Tiafoe said about getting sick late in the fourth set.
“But here, you got to lay it all on the line.” His Grand Slam breakthrough came at Melbourne Park in 2019, when he made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Rafael Nadal.While the temperature was about 80 degrees and it was sunny on Monday – a stark contrast to the thunderstorm that delayed play for more than six hours Sunday – Tiafoe said the heat was not the issue for him during a match that began at 11 a.m.Instead, he said he probably was over-hydrated. (PTI)
