World No. 1 Jannik Sinner extended his ATP 1000 match winning streak to 29 on Saturday, cruising to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner at the Italian Open in Rome. The Italian star, who lost to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s Rome final, is chasing the “Career Golden Masters”—winning all nine ATP Masters events, a feat only Novak Djokovic has accomplished since the series began in 1990.
“It is an amazing feel to be back,” Sinner said after the match. “The first match, the most important thing is not to lose. The level will eventually come day by day. Since day one, this has been a very special tournament for me. Every year when you come here, you reflect about the year a little bit, being Italian and in a year a lot of things can change. I am happy to be here.”
Sinner faced no break points throughout the match. He broke Ofner’s serve in the fourth game of the first set and the opening game of the second set. His second-serve performance proved decisive, winning 15 of 21 of his own second serves (71%) and capturing nearly half of Ofner’s second offerings (14 of 29). Sinner will next face unseeded Alexei Popyrin in the third round after the Australian recovered from a poor second set to defeat No. 26 seed Jakub Mensik 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Mensik committed 33 unforced errors in the match.
Saturday saw seven other seeded players exit the tournament. No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime fell to Argentina’s Mariano Navone 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), while No. 5 Ben Shelton lost to Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3. Shelton was broken on consecutive service games in the first set and managed just one of his 12 aces in the deciding set, where he produced only five winners against 11 unforced errors.
“I was extremely tight from the beginning of the match,” Basilashvili said. “For me, it means a lot to have these kinds of matches, especially (against a) Top 10 player. Super happy and I am looking forward to the next match.”
Other seeded losers included No. 17 Cameron Norrie (lost to Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-3, 7-5), No. 24 Tomas Martin Etcheverry (fell to Mattia Bellucci 5-7, 6-2, 6-3), No. 27 Joao Fonseca (edged by Hamad Medjedovic 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1)), No. 28 Corentin Moutet (eliminated by Pablo Llamas Ruiz 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4)), and No. 15 Arthur Fils, who retired while trailing 4-0 to Andrea Pellegrino.
Seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev advanced via walkover against Czech Tomas Machac. No. 10 Flavio Cobolli defeated France’s Terence Atmane 7-6 (1), 6-3, while No. 12 Andrey Rublev ousted Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 6-4. No. 20 Frances Tiafoe rallied past Peru’s Ignacio Buse 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, No. 21 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin 7-6 (2), 6-4, and No. 30 Brandon Nakashima routed Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-0. In the only second-round match between unseeded players, Spanish lucky loser Martin Landaluce swept Croatia’s Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4.
