Jannik Sinner continued his title-defense run at the 2024 Canadian Open with another solid outing and victory over Alejandro Tabilo.
The Italian started his ascension to stardom at this ATP Masters 1000 event last year by winning it. It was the first Masters title he had ever won, and the following months after that were the best of his tennis career.
He won multiple events and then continued that ascension this year. The Australian Open and the Miami Open are just some of the tournaments that he won this year.
The hope is to add this year's Canadian Open to that list, and so far, it's going really well for the World No. 1. He won his first match in Montreal easily and added another win in the third round.
His third-round match was a bit more complicated because he was facing a good player with no shortage of confidence. Tabilo proved a few times this year how good of a player he is.
His win over Novak Djokovic and the run in Rome are the Chilean's biggest achievements, but even on hard courts, he can trouble his opponents. For a good portion of the opening set, Sinner struggled to exert pressure on Tabilo.
His opponent was able to win points on his serve despite not serving that well. The top seed was the same, as he barely struggled on his serve in the opening set.
He didn't allow any break points, and when he finally found break points on his opponent's serve, he was able to convert them. He was simply hitting the ball better, totaling nine winners to only four by Tabilo.
His opponent did try, though, and that's why he totaled ten unforced errors in the opening set. He needed to do much better, but there was only so much he could do when facing the world's No. 1 player.
The Italian feels comfortable on these types of courts, which is why he won the event last year as well, and the first set of this match 6-4. The start of the second set was fair for Tabilo, as he shook off the dropped set with an easy opening game.
Sinner also won his opening game easily, remaining largely unchallenged on his serve. Problems would arise quickly as the World No. 1 broke in Tabilo's second service game of the set, taking a 2-1 lead.
Tabilo was just not hitting the ball well enough. He made too many unforced errors, and in crucial moments, too, but that was largely because Sinner was putting him under a lot of pressure.
The Italian was flying high after taking that break. There was just nothing Tabilo was able to do against the Italian. He couldn't exert too much pressure because he wasn't hitting that well.
Sinner was also doing well on his serve the entire day, finding various types of solutions. He was superior from the baseline, and on these types of courts, that's essentially what decides points.
The final score of this third-round was 6-4, 6-3 for Sinner, who advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2024 Canadian Open, in which he will take on the fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev. He will be back on the courts again today for a double duty due to the rain delay from yesterday.
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