Sinner thrives under closed roof as Melbourne charge continues with De Jong win

Sinner cruises past De Jong to reach third round – Australian Open highlights

Jannik Sinner breezed into the Australian Open third round with a straight-sets win over qualifier Jesper de Jong.

With the roof on Margaret Court Arena shut, the Italian looked at home in the predictable conditions and did not face a single break point in a dominant 6-2 6-2 6-2 victory.

Sinner is one of the favourites for the title at Melbourne Park after his stunning finish to 2023, which included a first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open and two wins over world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

After the first four games stayed on serve, Sinner broke his rival in the fifth game before reeling off three more on the spin – including a mammoth seventh game for 5-2 – to take the opening set.

The 22-year-old was proving unbreakable from the back of the court, enticing De Jong to go for bigger and bigger shots, and he broke again at 1-1 in the second set when the Dutchman went long.

Soon 1-1 had become 5-1, and although De Jong fought back from 0-30 in his next service game to add some respectability to the set, it was not long before Sinner was celebrating a two-set lead.

With that, any remaining De Jong resistance vanished. The world No. 4 broke twice more at the start of the third set and duly served out the match at the first opportunity.

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“For me, they can play the whole tournament indoors,” Sinner, who had superfans the ‘Carota Boys’ again in attendance, joked on court afterwards.

“For sure, it’s a little bit different. The first match was a little bit windy. The weather is good. We’re in Australia, back in Europe it’s very cold weather so I think we’re all very happy to play here.”

Should he continue untroubled in Melbourne, Sinner is projected to meet home favourite Alex de Minaur – a 6-3 6-0 6-3 winner over Italian Matteo Arnaldi on Wednesday – in the quarter-finals before a potential semi-final showdown with Djokovic.

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