ATP Umag, Jannik Sinner joins Franco Agamenone in semifinals

“Agamenone? I will have to be very careful and play my best tennis.”

More and more Italian is speaking at the ongoing Umag ATP 250 tournament in the Croatian resort of the same name. After recording the passage to the semifinals of Franco Agamenone, who defeated Marco Cecchinato in an Italian derby with a score of 6-2 6-1, and Giulio Zeppieri – who defeated Zapata Miralles – Jannik Sinner also reached the penutlimo act of the tournament, beating Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena in two sets.

In the first set Sinner placed the break in the third game, confidently protecting his service turns without conceding break balls, then closing the partial 6-4.

In the second set, the San Candido native wasted five chances for another break, also in the third game, but came to serve for the match at 6-5 in his favor after breaching the Spaniard in the 11th game. Here the lights temporarily went out, with the Italian conceding the first and only counter-break ball to his opponent, who punctually took advantage of the opportunity by extending the match to the tie-break.

In the decisive act of the partial, Sinner goes ahead 6-3 except to suffer the partial comeback of his opponent, who gets as far as 5-6: however, the Spaniard’s backhand ends up long and Sinner can rejoice in victory.

“I’m very happy, it’s my first semifinal of the year after so many matches,” Sinner began in the hot post-match interview. “I had some unlucky moments in the year, but now I am happy like this, I hope to play well next round. In my last service game I froze a little bit, I had played well in my previous service rounds, but then I tried to push away the negative thoughts to bring home the tie break. Agamenone? He is a very good player, he showed that this week. Today he defeated an opponent who was in good shape. I will have to be very careful and play my best tennis if I want to make the match mine,” concluded the tennis player.