Annabel Croft was impressed with how Jannik Sinner turned around his third round encounter at the China Open.
For the second successive contest, Sinner recovered from losing the first set to claim victory and keep his title defence alive.
But once again he was able to recover from a slow start and the 23-year-old clinched his 13th successive win on the ATP Tour.
Jannik Sinner overcame the hard-hitting and big-serving Roman Safiullin to book his spot in the quarter-finals in Beijing, where he will face Jiri Lehecka.
What did Annabel Croft notice about Jannik Sinner’s comeback at the China Open?
Sinner’s serve was broken twice by Safiullin on the way to losing the first set. The World number one was unable to take control of the baseline exchanges and he struggled with the excellent serving from the Russian.
But he kept battling and grabbed crucial breakthroughs in sets two and three to secure a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the last eight.
Sky Sports commentator Annabel Croft watched the game and highlighted what Sinner began to change in his game that coincided with Safiullin’s level dropping.
“He was made to work so hard for this victory, two hours and 20 minutes, up against a very spirited opponent. We had big serving, beautiful groundstrokes,” Croft said.
“We had that one rally that was 36 strokes long which Roman Safiullin won. But I think his serving stats dropped off just a tiny bit.
“Sinner started to pick it up and he started to get the momentum and get more first serves into play and cut down the errors off that forehand wing, and really started to find his form.”
Jannik Sinner continues impressive 2024 record after reaching China Open quarter-finals
With his latest victory, Sinner reached the China Open quarter-finals for the second successive year.
In the process, Sinner has maintained his streak of reaching the quarter-finals or better in every tournament he has competed in this season.
2024 has been a phenomenal year for the tennis star, who has claimed two Grand Slam titles and reached the World number one ranking.
Sinner has claimed six tiles this year and is on a mission to defend the China Open and lift his seventh trophy of the campaign.
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