A clinical Jannik Sinner performance saw him continue his perfect start in Turin with a straight sets win over Taylor Fritz.
In a rematch of this year’s US Open final, the world number one made disciplined work of a brave and battling Taylor Fritz.
The American played a sensational match but couldn’t match Jannik Sinner at the pivotal moments.
The Italian needed just two breaks of serve throughout the entire match, choosing to strike at 5-4 in each set.
There was ultimately little a visibly frustrated Fritz could do, keeping up with the Italian for nearly the whole contest, yet falling in such helpless circumstances.
An unbeaten Sinner faces Daniil Medvedev next, while Fritz needs to get one over Alex de Minaur if he is to advance to the semi-finals.
Laura Robson explains ‘what is scary’ for Taylor Fritz
What more can you do if you are Taylor Fritz? He produced some of his best tennis and pushed the best player in the world all the way. Yet he has virtually nothing to show for it.
Laura Robson suggested the American would be left frustrated by a match that no matter how hard he tried, was seemingly never in his own hands.
She said on Sky Sports’ coverage after the match: “He [Fritz] did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. He can walk off court and think about all the positives from that match and yet he lost in straight sets. That is the scary thought.
“I am glad he is signing autographs. He has played so well there. He has done everything right. He has behaved exactly the way you would want him to after the US Open final. He had such clear intentions and again he has lost in straight sets, that’s just how good Jannik Sinner was today.
“That was something special. The shot making, the movement, everything about it. And he’s got the crowd support. It’s going to be tough for people to break him down.”
Indeed home favorite Sinner helped create a superb atmosphere, revving up a 12,000 strong crowd inside the Inalpi Arena.
With this latest win, his 27th in his last 28, the Italian freight train looks unlikely to start losing pace anytime soon.
How on earth do you stop Jannik Sinner?
Ultimately, you can’t when he plays like this.
Robson is spot on – For Fritz, you might watch that back and try and pick your performance apart, but to what end?
Unfortunately, the match was stripped out of his control through no fault of his own. Fritz is dealing with hard-court supremacy and a level of tennis nobody has been able to get close to of late.
Sinner will also only be buoyed on by his ability to steal matches and stick with his opponent cooly until he decides to up the stakes.
The Italian struck 22 winners to 18 unforced errors, while Fritz hit 19 winners and struck out 26 times – stats that don’t reveal any sort of major hole in the American’s performance.
With three straight defeats to Sinner, Fritz may only be able to take comfort in the fact that he made it marginally hard for the Italian.
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