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After dominating on aggressive exhausting courts, Jannik Sinner made a easy transition to softer clay by beating Sebastian Korda 61, 62 within the second spherical of the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.
MONACO: After dominating on aggressive exhausting courts, Jannik Sinner made a easy transition to softer clay by beating Sebastian Korda 6-1, 6-2 within the second spherical of the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.
But defending champion Andrey Rublev was eradicated after a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Alexei Popyrin.
The second-seeded Sinner gained 95% of factors on his first serve and saved all three break factors in enhancing his document to 23-1 this yr. He has three titles in 2024, together with the Australian Open — his first main trophy — and lately the Miami Open.
“I moved quite well in these conditions,” mentioned the 22-year-old Italian, who reached the semifinals at Monte Carlo final yr. “Every year it is tough to come here and perform well but I am happy with the performance.”
Sinner faces Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday within the third spherical, the place he’ll be part of two-time champions Novak Djokovic — who gained on Tuesday — and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Twelfth-seeded Tsitsipas routed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-1, 6-0 and subsequent faces No. 5 Alexander Zverev in a contest between large servers. Djokovic takes on unseeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
The sixth-seeded Rublev dropped his serve 3 times in opposition to Popyrin, who subsequent faces No. 11 Alex de Minaur in an all-Australian contest on the Monte Carlo Country Club, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.
“I am feeling really comfortable on (clay) and happy to beat a guy who was in form, confident and the defending champ,” Popyrin mentioned. “It was an awesome match.”
De Minaur rallied previous unseeded Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who’s chasing his first title of the yr, gained 6-2, 6-4 in opposition to French veteran Gaël Monfils, and two-time French Open runner-up Casper Ruud — seeded eighth — downed Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 6-4.
Later Wednesday, final yr’s runner-up Holger Rune confronted qualifier Sumit Nagal of India and No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov performed Miomir Kecmanovic.
Also within the second spherical, there have been wins for No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz, No. 14 Ugo Humbert, No. 15 Karen Khachanov and fortunate loser Lorenzo Sonego, who changed the injured Carlos Alcaraz after the Spaniard pulled out on Tuesday with a proper forearm harm.
Record 11-time Monte Carlo champion Rafael Nadal pulled out with a lingering harm earlier than the match.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
