Sinner Stunned In His First Match In Cincinnati Despite Having Special Request Granted

Wednesday, 16 August 2023 at 21:15

byEvita Mueller

Reigning Canadian Open champion Jannik Sinner was stunned by qualifier Dusan Lajovic in his first match at the Cincinnati Masters.

The run in Toronto was really important for Sinner as it was the first time he won an ATP 1000 trophy. It's his biggest trophy, and getting there took him a while. It will take time to settle, and it's why this result shouldn't be a shock to anybody.

Lajovic has been pretty good so far at the event cruising through the qualifiers and winning two main draw matches. He defeated Francisco Cerundolo in the previous round and now added this win over Sinner, who asked the organizers to start today in order to recover.

It still wasn't enough time for him to fully clear his mind, and Lajovic took advantage of it. The start of the match was pretty fair on both sides, as neither found any chances. Lajovic broke his opponent midway through the set and held his serve comfortably for the 6-4 finish.

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The second set was much loser as the Serbian barely avoided a break early on. Sinner pushed more in the second set, searching for a spark but it never came. Sinner then had a really big hold at 4-4 in the second set, which prolonged the match until the tiebreak.

In the tiebreak, we saw Lajovic once more find really good solutions against the Italian, who didn't play a terrible match. This was actually a pretty solid effort from him it's just that Lajovic has been feeling really good all week long.

The Serbian had another solid outing hitting four aces, adding 20 winners and only 13 unforced errors. He was also very strong in crucial points saving all five break points on his serve. All of that was enough to take down an okay Sinner.