Sinner starts with a win – tennis

Yannick Sener won at the start. © ANSA/Mick Tsikas

The new tennis year couldn’t start any better for Jannik Sinner: The South Tyrol tennis player celebrated his victory at the start of the ATP Cup in Australia. Even a short period of weakness did nothing to change what was largely a sovereign success.

Jan 02 2022

Author: am

In the end, Sinner didn’t let much burn in his first match of 2022: At 1:04 hours, 20-year-old Sesto beat opponent Max Purcell on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. After dominating 6:1 after 29 minutes in the first set, he clearly won 6:3 in the second set, despite the short difficult stage. He brought the Azzurri a 1-0 lead in the ATP Cup against Australia.

Nor did the Australian move deter her from sin. In fact, he should face the world’s 49th Pusterer, James Duckworth, in Azzurri’s first match. But this did not happen. At the last minute, the Australian team decided to send Max Purcell to the opening match. An easier task for Sinner on paper. Purcell is currently only 176th in the world rankings, and Sener was defeated by Duckworth in 2021 at the Masters in Toronto, Canada. Against Purcell, Sinner celebrated two wins in two games so far: 3:1 in the first round of the 2021 US Open and 3:0 in the first round of the 2020 Australian Open.

Sunday was followed by a third win in the third match against the Australian. By and large he was sovereign: at what point in the game did Sinner raise serious doubts that he would win such a start. Already in the first set he got a break to 3:1 in the fourth inning, got another break in the sixth, and then cleared everything up with the second ball.

Max Purcell had little to oppose Sener for most of the party. © ANSA/Mick Tsikas

The same image is at the beginning of the second sentence as well. Sinner presented himself with confidence, made hardly any mistakes and was a bit too big for Purcell. In the first inning he got a zero break, and in the third inning Sinner broke again and then moved to 4-0 after serving. Then Purcell came to 1:4 again, played hard and then even made the break to 2:4 with the game’s first break ball (and should still be the only ball). Now the Australian presented himself in strong form and won the match to 3:4 with his own serve with a one-to-zero.

But then Sener responded admirably. After a brief period of weakness, he regained the upper hand, playing himself hard and never giving Purcell a chance. to zero, set it back to 5:3 on a send. On the opposing serve, he took the lead at 40:15 and thus had two break or match balls: the second was the tennis ace of South Tyrol.

South Tyrol brought the Azores to the fore. © ANSA/Mick Tsikas

The Azzurri are leading 1-0. In the second match, Matteo Berrettini (ATP 7) meets Alex De Minaur (ATP 34) immediately after, after which my doubles are put into the program, in which doubles specialist Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini are planned. You compete against the John Peers/Luke Savile duo.

The ATP Cup has always been held at the start of the season in Australia since 2020. The format of the tournament is similar to that of the Davis Cup. 16 national teams start. Italy was placed in Group B. After the start against Australia, the Azzurri still have to play against France and Russia.