Sinner Cruises Past Tsitsipas in Six Kings slam Debut
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - Jannik Sinner launched his campaign at the inaugural Six Kings Slam with a dominant 6-2, 6-3 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday. The Italian controlled the match from start to finish, securing the win in one hour and fifteen minutes.
Sinner, returning to competition ten days after retiring due to cramps in Shanghai, immediately broke Tsitsipas’ serve and maintained the advantage throughout the first set. Despite a brief respite for the Greek, who briefly held serve to reach 5-2, Sinner closed out the set 6-2 in 35 minutes.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with Sinner earning an early break and building a 3-0 lead. Tsitsipas responded with a break of his own,leveling the set at 3-2,before requesting a medical timeout for a back issue at 4-3. sinner,though,remained focused and secured the set 6-3. Tsitsipas lost his serve six times throughout the match.
In earlier action, Taylor Fritz defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 in one hour, advancing to the semi-finals where he will face top seed Carlos Alcaraz.
alcaraz defended his participation in the exhibition tournament, addressing concerns about a congested calendar. “Many discuss the calendar and the fact that players first complain about the calendar and then play exhibitions,” he said. “I understand the criticism, but playing exhibitions is mentally less demanding than official tournaments. There you have 15 or 16 days in a row in which you have to be very concentrated and this is physically demanding. Here we only have one or two days of fun playing tennis, and it’s fantastic.”
Despite still recovering from an ankle injury, Alcaraz stated, “I don’t feel 100%. I have some doubts when I move on the pitch. But I have improved a lot and I intend to compete and do well here.”
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