Still tossed around, Jannik Sinner still wins his place in the quarter-finals in Madrid

They say that the greatest are also those who know how to win on bad days. It is likely that Jannik Sinner belongs to this caste. In any case, without shining, for the second day in a row after the victory on Monday in the third round against Pavel Kotov (6-2, 7-5), on Tuesday he eliminated another Russian in a row, Karen Khachanov ( 5 -7, 6- 3, 6-3 at 2h10′).

The world No. 2 logically lost the first round, where he did not get a single break point, against a 17th ranked in the world who did the job. Apparently not entirely comfortable with his movements, the question of the hip pain mentioned the previous day by the Italian came up.

Significantly improving his serve efficiency from the second set onwards (more first balls that passed and more first balls that hurt), he took back control: “I made a lot of mistakes in the first set, especially in the game where I was broken, but I immediately knew how to refocus and being broken at the start of the second set gave me confidence again. It was still very difficult because Karen served very well at times. Fortunately, I served well at the start of the third when it was complicated (one break point saved at 0-1, another at 1-2) and I felt better towards the end, so I’m happy. »

28 wins in 30 games in 2024

Winning 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, he meets on Thursday, in the quarter-finals, the winner of the match between Félix Auger-Aliassime (35th) and Casper Ruud (6th). In which state? “If I look back at the start of the season, I’ve played a lot of games this year, I know that. If I had felt worse than yesterday (at hip level), I would have asked myself the question of playing, yes. I’m not 100% physically but I wanted to try and I now have a day off. So this Wednesday I will try to recover. » Jannik Sinner, in 2024 there are now thirty matches, including twenty-eight wins. No one did it better, obviously.