World No. 1 Jannik Sinner extended his ATP 1000 match winning streak to 29 on Saturday with a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner at the Italian Open.
Sinner, who hails from Italy, fell in the 2025 finals of the tournament in Rome to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. The Italian is attempting to capture the “Career Golden Masters,” winning all nine ATP Masters events, a feat only achieved by Serbia’s Novak Djokovic since the series started in 1990.
“It is an amazing feel to be back,” Sinner said after the match. “The first match, the most important thing is not to lose. The level will eventually come day by day. Since day one, this has been a very special tournament for me. Every year when you come here, you reflect about the year a little bit, being Italian and in a year a lot of things can change. I am happy to be here.”
Sinner did not face a break point in the match against Ofner. He broke the Austrian’s serve in the fourth game of the first set and the opening game of the second set. His play on second serves was the difference as Sinner won 15 of 21 of his own second serves (71%) and captured nearly half (14 of 29) of Ofner’s second offerings.
Sinner will face unseeded Alexei Popyrin in the third round, as the Australian recovered from a poor second set to defeat No. 26 Czech Jakub Mensik, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Mensik made 33 unforced errors in the final match of the day.
In addition to Mensik, seven other seeded players fell on Saturday. No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime dropped a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) decision to Argentine Mariano Navone, and No. 5 Ben Shelton fell to Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
Shelton was broken on back-to-back service games in the first set and only hit one of his dozen aces in the deciding set, during which he only produced five winners against 11 unforced errors.
“I was extremely tight from the beginning of the match,” Basilashvili said. “For me, it means a lot to have these kinds of matches, especially (against a) Top 10 player. Super happy and I am looking forward to the next match.”
The other seeded players to fall were No. 17 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, who lost to Thiago Agustin Tirante of Argentina, 6-3, 7-5, No. 24 Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who dropped a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 decision to Italian Mattia Bellucci, No. 27 Brazilian Joao Fonseca, who was edged by Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1), and No. 28 Corentin Moutet of France, who was eliminated by Spanish qualifier Pablo Llamas Ruiz, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
Moreover, No. 15 Arthur Fils of France, who recently won in Barcelona, retired while trailing 4-0 to Andrea Pellegrino of Italy.
Seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia advanced in a walkover versus Czech Tomas Machac. No. 10 Italian Flavio Cobolli defeated France’s Terence Atmane, 7-6 (1), 6-3, while No. 12 Andrey Rubrev of Russia ousted Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 20 Frances Tiafoe came from behind to edge Peru’s Ignacio Buse, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, No. 21 Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina knocked off Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin, 7-6 (2), 6-4 and No. 30 Brandon Nakashima routed Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-4, 6-0.
In Saturday’s lone second-round match involving unseeded players, Spanish lucky loser Martin Landaluce swept Croatia’s Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
