Rome, May 13 (IANS) World No.1 Jannik Sinner continued his return from a doping ban with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Italian Open) in Rome.
The Italian who defeated Mariano Navone in his first match for more than three months on Saturday, backed that up on Monday with another stable display, beating Jesper de Jong 6-4, 6-2 on Monday night.
Playing in front of a vocal Italian crowd on Campo Centrale, Sinner let slip a break advantage in the first set but responded quickly to move ahead. The World No. 1 then moved through the gears in the second set against De Jong, who injured his right wrist when slipping at 1-3, 40/15 in the second set.
Sinner helped De Jong to his feet before he passed the 24-year-old a towel. The World No. 93 received a medical timeout at 2-3, with his wrist heavily strapped. The Dutchman could continue but was heavily hampered, frequently shaking out his wrist between points.
With his one-hour, 35-minute win, Sinner extended his winning streak to 23 matches and improved to 61-0 against players ranked outside the Top 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings since the start of the 2023 US Open.
Sinner moved fairly freely and struck the ball with clean timing in just his second match since winning his third major at the Australian Open in January. The top seed was aggressive on return, winning 71 percent of points on De Jong’s second serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He stood close to the baseline to dictate the key points and sealed victory on his first match point.
Into the fourth round in Rome for the fourth time, Sinner will next meet Francisco Cerundolo. The Argentine, a recent semi-finalist in Madrid, defeated Sebastian Ofner 6-2, 6-4. Cerundolo beat Sinner in the pair’s previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in Rome in 2023, with the series tied at 2-2 overall.
In other matches on Monday, sixth seed Casper Ruud of Norway advanced to the Round of 16 when Italian 20th seed Matteo Berrettini retired from their match, trailing 7-5, 2-0. Seventh seed Alex de Minaur of Australia defeated luck-loser Hugo Dellien of Bolivia 6-4, 6-4 while Tommy Paul of the United States beat Tomas Machac of Czechia 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 in a two-and-a-half-hour battle.
Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, Jakub Mensik of Czechia, Jaume Munar of Spain and Hubert Hurkacz of Poland also advanced to the next round, getting past their respective opponents.
–IANS
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