Jannik Sinner advances in Beijing: beats a tenacious Terence Atmane

Jannik Sinner makes it past the round of 16 of the China Open in Beijing, but the match against Terence Atmane, already met and beaten recently in Cincinnati, was anything but easy, at least in the first two sets: it took a total of more than two hours (141 the total minutes of play) to get the better of the Frenchman, with the score of 6-4, 5-7, 6-0.

In the first game fraction, Sinner found the break in the third game, and from there he managed without any particular problems although Atmane was able to cancel as many as four set balls before capitulating. It was a different story in the second set: a series of breaks and counterbreaks brought the two contenders to 5-5, Atmane taking advantage of the slightest blunder by the South Tyrolean to take the match to the decisive fraction.

In the third set, however, there was literally no match: with a very clear 6-0, in just over half an hour, Jannik Sinner sealed the deal, winning the match and qualifying for the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in the Chinese capital. His next opponent will be Hungary’s Fabian Maroszan, who beat Alexandre Muller in two sets.

Today’s is the 20th consecutive win for Sinner against an opponent other than Carlos Alcaraz. The last person to beat the South Tyrolean, if you exclude the Murcian himself, was Alexander Bublik, who was able to oust the current world No. 2 in the round of 16 at the Halle tournament, in the match played last June 19 and won by the Kazakh 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.