Jannik Sinner sweeps away fears: he recovers Khachanov and flies to the quarters
Jannik Sinner sweeps away fears: he recovers Khachanov and flies to the quarters
Jannik Sinner full ahead: the Italian champion sweeps away fears of a hip problem and overcomes Russian Karen Khachanov in a comeback in three sets, qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters 1000 after a tough match that lasted more than 2 hours. The South Tyrolean tennis player, who won by the scores of 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, will challenge in the quarterfinals the winner of the other eighth between Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Norwegian Casper Ruud, the tournament’s number five seed.
Initial balance in the first set, the serves have the upper hand. The world number two apart from a somewhat problematic start has no problems at the serve, but at the same time he does not find the right countermeasures to oppose the serve of Khachanov, perhaps a little affected by hip trouble. In the 11th game comes a surprise break for the Russian, who takes advantage of a double fault by Jannik and immediately seizes the opportunity by stealing service from the Italian, who then is unable to react. 7-5 Khachanov.
Sinner’s reaction was not long in coming: in the second set, the South Tyrolean immediately broke the Russian in the second game, taking advantage of two Khachanov errors. The San Candido athlete, growing physically, took advantage of his opponent's decline to quickly close out the partial 6-3.
Third set very hard-fought, Khachanov è very solid on serve and insidious in response, Sinner has to save two break points. In the fifth game the winner of the Australian Open 2024 raises the level, finding the break with two crazy shots. The Azure plays with great confidence and è at times exhilarating: he gives no more chances to recover to the Russian, who has to surrender 6-3.
Sinner decided to play overcoming the doubts of the last few hours, after the hip resentment suffered Monday during the match against Russian Pavel Kotov. L'Azzurro tested his condition in training a few hours before the match and together with his staff decided to continue the tournament.
