MELBOURNE: Fourth seed Jannik Sinner got off to a charming start in his attempt to claim his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open 2024 as the Italian defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4 7-5 6-3 in the first round on Sunday.
Sinner enjoyed a breakthrough last year, winning his first Masters title, in Toronto, Canada and making the championship game against Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals.
It flashed high expectations that it is only a matter of time before the player wins a major and he came through a hard encounter at Melbourne Park to open his 2024 account, thrashing Dutchman 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena.
The 4️⃣ seed is into the second round 👏@Janniksin kicks off his #AO2024 with a straight sets victory over Van de Zandschulp 6-4 7-5 6-3. #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Pe6HnfFD6S
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 14, 2024
It was Jannik Sinner Sinner’s first match of the year following he opted against a warm-up event but Sinner demonstrated few signs of rust, breaking Van de Zandschulp’s first service game and powering via the first set in 46 minutes of the match.
But the Dutchman, refused to go silently, hitting the ball so hard in the 2nd set that his noise strings snapped.
At a career-high 4th in the world, Sinner also won titles 2023 in Montpellier, Beijing, Vienna and was instrumental in helping Italy victory the Davis Cup.
