By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, January 14, 2024

Jannik Sinner spent the start of his offseason in a speedy slide.

Today, Sinner made a sound start to the Australian Open.

McEnroe: Dimitrov Top Dark Horse For Australian Open

Sinner started and ended the match with service breaks beating Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in an opening-round sweep on Rod Laver Arena.

“It was good. Good for me to get out there, and obviously it was not easy," Sinner told the media in Melbourne. "I won in straight sets, but it was not that easy.

"He played well. He served well. But I managed somehow to get the breaks in important moments. I'm happy to be back on court to compete, and that's what I love to do. So it was a nice feeling."



The 22-year-old Sinner showed some of his peak play knocking off No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Davis Cup semifinals and Aussie No. 1 Alex de Minaur in the final leading Italy to its first Davis Cup championship in 47 years in Malaga, Spain last November.

That dynamic performance made Sinner a national hero in Italy, but didn’t leave too much time to decompress before starting the 2024 season.

The former junior ski champion hit the slopes for a bit of a break then came to Melbourne a week early to acclimate to conditions down under.

Though this wasn’t a vintage Sinner performance—he framed some forehands and his first-serve percentage dropped over the course of all three sets—but given this was his first official match of the season and it came against the 2021 US Open quarterfinalist, Sinner was satisfied with his start.

“When I finished the season I immediately went to ski a little bit so it was good for me to not think about tennis for a little bit,” Sinner said. “Physically, I feel good. I’m here in a good shape.

“The first round is never easy, the first match of the season, so I think I can be very happy for today.”

Sinner won the coin toss, elected to receive and broke to start when the Dutchman slapped a forehand into net.

The Toronto champion fended off a couple of break points, dabbing the drop shot and drilling a pair of aces to back up the break for 2-0.

Sinner served out the 46-minute opener snatching a one-set lead on the strength of 10 winners to four for his opponent. Sinner backed up his second serve capably winning eight of 10 second-serve points in the set.

Van de Zandschulp saved a break point in a four-and-a-half minute hold to start the second set.

The 59th-ranked Dutchman was sometimes pushed back behind the baseline by the depth of Sinner’s drives. Van de Zandschulp mis-hit a few forehands, but hung tough rallying from 15-30 down to hold for a 4-3 second-set lead.

Serving at 5-all, a forehand flew long on Van de Zandschulp. The 28-year-old Dutchman compounded that miscue netting a forehand drop shot to face two break points.

On the second break point, Sinner cracked a drive then played an of Unleashing the serve and forehand drive volley brought Sinner double set point. Sinner blocked a forehand volley building a two-set lead after one hour, 46 minutes. Van de Zandschulp battled hard, but his forehand cracked on a few key points. Sinner rattled 20 unforced errors from the Dutchman in the set.



"I feel like I started off actually really well, to be honest, for the first match," Sinner said. "Then after, I had some moments where I made a couple of wrong choices, but this can happen. Even if you made maybe some matches, you know, this can happen. Maybe you are a little bit tired sometimes. Today I felt like a little bit, you know, the match feeling, it was important today, no, for me, because I was looking forward to step on the court.

"I think, to be honest, it was a positive opening match. I feel like best-of-five can help me a little bit. You stay on court a little bit longer. You get to play a little bit longer, which is what I like to do. Then we see, no, in the next rounds what's coming."

For the third straight set, Sinner was in position for the opening-game break earning triple break point. Van de Zandschulp not only erased all three break points, he fought off a fourth break point in a five-and-a-half minute hold to start the third set.

That strong stand empowered Van de Zandschulp, who immediately went up triple break point on Sinner’s serve. Looking a bit impatient, the lanky Italian ballooned a forehand well long, gifting the break and a 2-0 lead to the Dutchman.

That sloppy start was a brief lapse as Sinner came right back looping a lob to set up an audacious angled volley winner that left Van de Zandschulp sprawling in chase mode. Sinner broke right back in the third game.

The forehand failed Van de Zandschulp in the fifth game. He shoveled a forehand into the middle of the net as Sinner scored his fourth break for a 3-2 lead.

There was one final hurdle to clear as Sinner leaped out of a triple break point hole with some heavy hitting and clever angles to consolidate for 4-2.

Van de Zandschulp missed the mark with one final forehand as Sinner sealed a two hour, 34-minute triumph with his fifth break of the day.

That finished inpsired the Carota Boys, Sinner's fans dressed in carot costumes, to begin chanting "Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole! Sinner! Sinner!"

The traveling Carota chorus continues to inspire.

"Yeah, it feels good. I was not expecting them to come here, but it's nice to see them in the stands," Sinner said. "Obviously we have made some great memories together, no, with all the support they give me. Yeah, they are getting more famous than I am slowly.

"You know, I'm happy for them, no? It's nice to have them. Obviously I also have to watch out for myself, because, you know, I want to win as many matches as possible, but maybe this support gives me in the key moments maybe this extra belief maybe. Who knows? Let's see how it goes here."

Key Stat
Break-point disparity showed dramatic difference today. Sinner converted five of 15 break points and saved five of the six break points today.

Turning Point
Down 0-2 at the start of the third set, Sinner broke down the Van de Zandschulp forehand winning six of the final seven games to seal it.


What this Win Means for Sinner
The 2023 Wimbledon semifinalist is through to the second round for the fourth time in five AO appearances. Sinner will want to clean up some misfired forehand and stabilize his first-serve percentage, but overall was in control from the start to set up a second-rounder vs. either 72nd-ranked Argentinean Pedro Cachin or Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong next.