Sinner’s opponent, the Russian Pavel Kotov, is an Italian terror this season: He has defeated four Azzurri this year alone: Musetti in Hong Kong, Sonego in Doha and Fognini and Cobolli in Marrakech. But today he has to compete against the best player in Italy, against Jannik Sinner – and he will make life difficult for him too. But only in the second set: Jannik Sinner shows himself confidently in the first set and wins 6:2. So far he has the Russian under control, gets the important points and makes few mistakes of his own.
Contested second set
But in the second set the 25-year-old Russian showed a much better game. He creates chances and also has a break opportunity in the third game. He has two chances to take the lead – Sinner fends off the first with his serve, but the Russian uses the second break point after a long rally and takes the lead 2-1. Sinner also seems to have slight health problems; he keeps grabbing his hip.
From Kotov’s point of view, they both played their serve games until it was 5:4. And now Sinner has the chance. He reacts well to Kotov’s serves and puts himself in position to equalize. He has two chances to break, and Sinner takes advantage of the second. It’s 5:5, everything is open again. Sinner then confidently carries through his own serve again, and now the South Tyrolean is back in his game. He shows that in the decisive last game. When Kotov serves, he gets three match points. But the Russian, number 72 in the world, can fend off all three. And even then it’s a long fight, a long transition between advantage and debut, including a serve from below by the Russian. But Sinner keeps his nerve, gets the fourth match point and wins the second set 7:5.
Jannik Sinner is now in the round of 16 in Madrid. Regarding the pain in his hip, the Sexton player said after the game: “Yes, the hip hurts slightly, but that’s nothing new, I have that often. My team has it well under control, we’ll wait and see what it looks like tomorrow, I hope I can give 100 percent again.”