Wimbledon: Sinner Is Back to His Best After a Tough Stretch; Borges Is Knocked Out

Jannik Sinner defeated Portugal’s Nuno Borges in three sets to advance to the third round of Wimbledon after a hard-fought, grueling match against the world No. 51 that lasted over two hours and forty minutes. The Italian, who had an up-and-down performance and went through a few rough patches, prevailed with set scores of 7-6, 7-6, 6-4, proving himself to be clinical and composed in the match’s most critical moments. The South Tyrolean, who is clearly not yet at ease on the London grass but can rely on a superb serve (22 aces today, 53 since the start of the tournament), will face American Brooksby in the third round.

The first set flew by, with serves dominating the action. Apart from the first game, when he was forced to save three break points, Borges was very solid on serve and gave the world No. 1 no chances. In contrast, the South Tyrolean champion himself was relentless (with 7 aces and no break points conceded to the Portuguese player) and almost always held his serve to love. The set quickly goes to a tiebreak, where the Italian breaks the deadlock by winning 7-4.

Sinner struggles on serve in the second set: he suffers a break in the third game after a series of uncharacteristic errors, including his first double fault of the match. Borges held his serve firmly until the tenth game; then he left an opening, and the South Tyrolean immediately capitalized on the break point, leveling the score at his most difficult moment. The set went to another tiebreak: Sinner found his form again and won this tiebreak as well, 7-2.

Sinner was inconsistent at the start of the third set as well: after breaking serve in the first game, he immediately gave it back in the second. But the world No. 1 bounced back in the third game, breaking serve again thanks to four consecutive points. The Italian then didn’t make any more mistakes on serve and held onto his precious lead, closing out the set 6-4: mission accomplished, third round secured—albeit with great difficulty. Sinner committed 29 unforced errors and will need to review some aspects of his game with his team in the coming days.