Sinner Cruises โคPast Tsitsipas in Six Kings โslam Debut
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA โ- Jannik Sinner launched hisโค campaign at the inaugural Six Kings Slam with a dominant โฃ6-2, โค6-3 victoryโข over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday. The Italian controlled the โmatch from start to โfinish, securing the win in oneโ hour and fifteen minutes.
Sinner, returning to competition ten days after retiring due to cramps in Shanghai, immediately brokeโข Tsitsipas’ serve โฃand maintained โคthe advantage throughout the first set. Despite a brief respite for theโ Greek, whoโ briefly held serve to reach โข5-2, Sinner closed out the set 6-2 in 35 minutes.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with Sinner โearning an early break and building a โข3-0 lead. Tsitsipas responded withโ a break of his own,leveling the set at 3-2,before requestingโ a medical timeout for a back issue at 4-3. sinner,though,remained focused and secured the set 6-3. Tsitsipas lost his โserve six timesโฃ throughout the match.
In earlier โaction, Taylor Fritz defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 in one hour, advancing to theโค semi-finals whereโข 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 โฃplayers first complain about the calendar and then play exhibitions,” he said. “I understand โขthe criticism, but playing exhibitions is mentally โฃless demanding than official tournaments. There you have 15 or 16 days in aโ row in whichโ you have to be very concentrated andโข this is physically demanding.โข Here we only have one or โขtwo days of fun playing tennis, โคand it’s fantastic.”
Despite still recovering from โคan ankle injury, Alcaraz stated, “I don’t feel 100%. I have some doubts when I move on the pitch. โขBut I โฃhave improved a lot and I intend to compete and do well here.”
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