Jannik Sinner recorded his 250th career win by beating Taro Daniel in the second round of the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
The Italian player was on a 15-match winning streak prior to the China Open final, but in that match, it was Carlos Alcaraz who left Beijing with the trophy. After that, the two took a private jet together to move to Shanghai for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
Initially, they were supposed to play their first match, which is a second-round match because of a first-round bye for seeded players, on Friday, but thanks to a sensible decision by the organizers, they were given an extra day.
That meant that on Saturday, October 5th, fans in Shanghai could enjoy plenty of action on the tennis courts as Alcaraz started the day with a crushing victory over Juncheng Shang.
Sinner was second on the court, starting his campaign against Taro Daniel, who he bested two years ago in the third round of the Australian Open. Back then, he was the 11th-seeded player in the draw, but this time, SInner is the first seed.
And he played like a first seed. In the first set of the match, he gave his opponent no chances to think about winning it. It was relatively close until 2-1 and 15-30 from the Italian player's point of view, but that changed in a couple of minutes.
Sinner scored 12 points in a row to make it 5-1, but that one point didn't help his Japanese rival in any meaningful way, as the World No. 1 player won the following three to win the first set 6-1. From 2-1 and 15-30 until winning the set 6-1, Sinner lost only one point.
He wanted to be similarly dominant in the second set of the match, but in the first game, he couldn't use a break chance. He righted the wrong immediately in his next return game, breaking to lead 3-1.
After that, the players played the longest game of the match, and it was all because, on his opponent's game point, Sinner showcased some brilliant defense to send the game to a deuce.
There were a total of eight deuces in that game, but ultimately, Daniel was able to win it, staying in the match. However, in the whole match, the Japanese player couldn't produce a single break point, and that's why Sinner easily won 6-1, 6-4 to set up a third-round match with the 31st-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
During his on-court interview, the reigning World No. 1 player was asked about two new team members, physiotherapist Ulises Badio and fitness coach Marco Panichi, who previously worked with Novak Djokovic. The Italian was delighted to have them on board.
"For sure it takes a bit of time to know each other a bit better. I feel very comfortable with them already. We try to improve a couple of things and change some things. What will hopefully make me a better player and person."
"I’m happy I started quite early when I made the decision. This means very much to me. I feel like there’s still a lot of work to do. Especially off the court. I’m looking forward to the work."