Top seed Jannik Sinner made his return to singles at the 2024 Canadian Open in Montreal with a win over Borna Coric in two sets, confirming his candidacy to win this trophy again.
The Italian had a tremendous Canadian Open last year when he won the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. He outplayed everybody, and it was the first big trophy he won in what would be a superb run in the second part of the season.
That event was played in Toronto, while this year's Canadian Open is in Montreal; however, he's still the defending champion. There should be no shortage of motivation after having had to sit at home during the Olympics.
He's also the top seed because Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic won't be playing at the event. That's why he's considered the top favorite, and he certainly played like it in his opening match.
The opponent was Coric, who was playing at a really solid level overall. He's generally a solid player who's not easy to beat, but none of that was a problem for the Italian, who proved his qualities after overcoming tonsillitis, which he didn't want to have surgically removed because of recovery time.
Despite not playing in a while, he showed no rust, largely thanks to having played two doubles matches already and arriving early in Montreal. The start was quite competitive, as the first few games were long.
As it often happens, Sinner was searching for his best tennis, but once he found it, the Italian could steamroll past Coric relatively easily. He won the opening set 6-2 behind nine winners and only five unforced errors.
His Croatian opponent didn't play that terribly, but he wasn't good enough for Sinner, who was just on top in the rallies. He didn't even serve that well, and he was still able to win the set without allowing a single break point to his opponent.
That's a special level that very few players right now can match. Two of them aren't even in Canada, making it easier for Sinner. Fans didn't even have to wait too long for the break in the second set because the Croatian simply couldn't hold off the top seed.
After breaking Coric for a 2-1 lead in the second set, Sinner looked untouchable because he even started to serve well in the second set, which made it very difficult for his opponent to come back.
For the majority of the match, Sinner comfortably outplayed the Croatian in the rallies, and once he added his serve into the mix, there was simply nothing that Coric could do.
It was quite a ruthless display from Sinner, whom we haven't seen this dominant in a while. The final score of the match was 6-2, 6-4 for Sinner, who moved on with very good chances to win the tournament again.
This was a match where very little went wrong for him. He showed that the serve can be deadly. The live play was amazing, and the confidence didn't take a hit either.