Sinner’s race continues. Despite some physical problems and a tough and powerful opponent Jannik prevailed 6-2, 7-5 overcoming the Russian Kotov, reaching 27-2 in his incredible 2024 and reaching the round of 16 where today he will face the winner of Cobolli-Khachanov, on the pitch at the same time on Arantxa Sanchez. A strange match took place at the Manolo Santana, with many breaks and too many errors that a Sinner, slightly accelerated and bothered by a problem with his right hip, brought home in 98 minutes. A clearly less brilliant performance compared to the 6-0, 6-2 inflicted on Sonego in just over an hour in the first round, also because the Russian with the generous waist has better shots than his over 70 ranking and after a contracted first set he fought on equal terms. A surprise if we consider that Sinner’s victory was priced at a paltry 1.01 while that of the Russian was at 16.
non-existent service
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In an absurd first set Kotov and Sinner lost 5 serves in a row. The Russian played all his rounds, 3 out of 3, and so Jannik closed on 6-2 in 50 minutes of a decidedly anomalous test marked by errors. Sinner is excessively hasty, and the feeling that the desire to speed up comes from some physical problem: Jannik stretches, touches his right hip. At a changeover he takes a pill.
physical problems?
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In the second the pattern seems to have been interrupted, Jannik’s game was zero and the first serve was held by Kotov, but in the third game after a 10-point battle ended by a short ball missed by Jannik, the Russian broke the Italian’s serve again, taking at 2-1 and then extending further with a scoreless game, imitated by Sinner who closed yet another frenetic game with an ace. “Let’s try to win it like this” Vagnozzi told Jannik, confirming the hypothesis of some physical problem. Kotov continued to insist on Jannik’s forehand, taking the lead at 5-3 and extending each exchange with Sinner forced into overtime.
recovery
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The Russian serves for the set but a great forehand from Jannik and an unfortunate ball thrown into the net by Kotov offer Sinner two break points. The first is stopped by the tape, the second after a very long exchange closed by a great forehand from Jannik is worth 5-5. The Red Fox seems to have overcome, or forgotten, the hip problems: serve held with ease and return to Kotov’s turn to close the match. And here is yet another breathless game: Kotov misses two accessible balls, gets nervous and with a double fault gives three matchpoints to Jannik. The first two go away chased by the power of the Russian, the third Jannik puts it into the net. At the fifteenth point, and with Kotov having made the crowd nervous by serving from underneath, here is the fourth matchpoint, which Sinner doesn’t miss. It was tougher than expected, but the round of 16 is a reality.
