Jannik Sinner Concludes Australian Open Preparation With Win Over Stefanos Tsitsipas
News
Jannik Sinner will enter the 2025 Australian Open match-ready and victorious after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday evening.
The AO Opening Week is coming to an end. Prior to the first Grand Slam of the season, the organizers always try to entertain fans with many events around Melbourne Park, including a few exhibition charity matches.
This year, there were plenty of those, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both appearing on the tennis courts twice. On top of that, Novak Djokovic also had his own exhibition, called "A Night With Novak."
The Serbian player bested Alexander Zverev in singles, his coach Andy Murray and Victoria Azarenka in mixed doubles, and he also won a wheelchair doubles match.
Similarly, Sinner started his new season with a victory over Alexei Popyrin in what was the first match of the series of exhibition events, and the ATP World No. 1 also ended the AO Opening Week with a match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Greek player hasn't competed in any other matches during the AO Opening Week, but he previously played at the United Cup, winning one match and losing the other one.
In their meeting at the Rod Laver Arena, it was the Italian player who had a much better start. Although both players held their serve initially, Sinner soon broke his opponent's serve, and even beautiful return winners couldn't help Tsitsipas to break back, as Sinner's aggression was too much for him to handle.
The Italian made it to 4-1 when former WTA player Andrea Petkovic decided to conduct the first on-court interview in this match. These mid-match interviews are something that makes these matches more exciting for fans watching.
"It's actually the first time this year that I play with the roof closed. I feel like the ball is quite fast today. I'm going to try a couple of things to see what works the best in this situation."
Sinner didn't need to try anything new and just stick to what was working for him, as he cruised towards an easy first-set win, 6-3, despite hitting a double fault when serving for the set.
In the second set, both players made good use of the indoor conditions, as the ball was flying around the court very fast. That meant both were able to hold their serve without many issues, which is why the second set reached a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Tsitsipas was the first player to get a mini-break, and it appeared that Sinner might struggle for the first time this year. But the Greek player then made a cheap forehand unforced error, which gave the mini-break right back.
Although Tsitsipas once again got to a one mini-break lead, he couldn't keep it, as he hit a double fault. The Greek player seemingly couldn't control his nerves, as he hit another double fault on the match point, as Sinner won the match 6-3, 7-6(5).
At the Australian Open, Sinner will start in the first round against Nicolas Jarry, who might prove to be a real challenge for the Italian player. Tsitsipas will face a similarly challenging start as he will take on talented Alex Michelsen.
