Sinner starts with a win

In the end, Sinner left little to burn in his first game of 2022: the 1-year-old from Sexten dispatched his opponent Max Purcell in 04:20 hours on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. After a confident 6:1 after 29 minutes in the first set, he clearly won the second set 2:6 despite a short, difficult phase. This gave the Azzurri a 3-1 lead in the ATP Cup against Australia.

Sinner wasn't deterred by the Australians' change. The Pusterer was actually supposed to face world number 49 James Duckworth in the first game for the Azzurri. But this did not happen. At the last moment, the Australian team decided to send Max Purcell into the opening match. On paper, an easier task for Sinner. Purcell is currently only 176th in the world rankings, and Sinner also suffered a defeat against Duckworth in 2021 at the Masters tournament in Toronto, Canada. Sinner has celebrated 2 wins in 2 games against Purcell so far: 3:1 in the first round of the US Open 2021 and 3:0 in the first round of the Australian Open 2020.

The third win in the third game against the Australian followed on Sunday. And on the whole he was confident: in hardly any phase of the game did Sinner give rise to serious doubts that he would win this start. Already in the first set he got the break in the 3th game to make it 3-4, secured another break in the 3th game and then made everything clear with the 1nd set ball.

Max Purcell had little to offer Sinner in most phases of the game. © ANSA / MICK TSIKAS

The same image at the beginning of the second movement. Sinner presented himself confidently, made hardly any mistakes and was simply a size too big for Purcell. In the first game he got the break to zero, in the third game Sinner broke again and then moved away to 2-3 after his service game. Purcell then got back to 4:0, played aggressively and then even managed the break to 1:4 with his first break point in the game (and it was to be the only one). The Australian now appeared in strong form and took the game 2-4 on his own serve with one to zero.

But then Sinner struck back impressively. After a short phase of weakness, he took the upper hand again, played aggressively and gave Purcell no chance. With zero, he pulled away again to 5:3 with a serve. When the opponent served, he then took the lead with 40:15, securing two break or match points: South Tyrol's tennis ace was able to convert the second.

The Azzurri are leading 1-0. In the second match, Matteo Berrettini (ATP 7) will face Alex De Minaur (ATP 34), after which the doubles will be on the agenda, with doubles specialist Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini scheduled for this. They compete against the duo John Peers/Luke Saville.

Since 2020, the ATP Cup has always been held at the start of the season in Australia. The format of the tournament is similar to the Davis Cup. 16 national teams are starting. Italy was drawn into Group B. After the opener against Australia, the Azzurri still have to play against France and Russia.

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Sinner starts with a win

The new tennis year couldn't have started better for Jannik Sinner: South Tyrol's tennis ace celebrated a victory at the start of the ATP Cup in Australia. Even a short phase of weakness did not change what was, on the whole, a confident success.

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