Sinner Defeats De Jong To Qualify For Italian Open Second Round

Jannik Sinner produced a dominant performance to defeat Jesper de Jong 6-4, 6-2 to qualify for the Italian Open second round on Monday.

Sinner erased two break points after increasing his pace. A double fault put De Jong back in the game, and earned the Dutchman his second-straight break.

The world number one threw away a three-game lead after taking a 4-1 lead before bouncing back to wrap up the game in the second set.

Sinner will take on Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in the Italian Open second round on Tuesday.

In the women’s category, Naomi Osaka crashed out of the tournament following a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Peyton Stearns.

Osaka has failed to get past the last 16 of a tournament higher than the WTA 125 series since losing the Auckland final in January.

Jasmine Paolini also defeated Jelena Ostapenko to qualify for the Italian Open quarter-finals where she will take on Diana Shnaider.

Emma Raducanu suffered a 6-1 6-2 loss to Coco Gauff to crash out of the tournament.

It was a big blow for Raducanu, who had won three clay-court matches in a row for the first time to reach the fourth round in the Italian capital.

Gauff was delighted to advance to the last eight while praising Raducanu’s performance.

She said: “Emma is a tough opponent no matter what surface and always tough to play – so I’m happy with how I played.

“My level is getting better every match and Madrid was a step in the right direction.

“Today I think my forehand was a big weapon, it set me up for a lot of short balls and a lot of good points.”

Raducanu expressed her desire to keep improving, and promised to bounce back from the defeat in no time.

She said: “I would love to just keep improving, keep playing. I think that’s a positive for me.

“I don’t want to go and hide in a hole somewhere, I want to get back out there, so that’s good.

“We’ll see how it goes in the next week before the French, if I get into Strasbourg. But, for now, I’ve played a good 12 days on the trot, so I’m looking forward to a day off or so and then getting back to it.

Gauff has won 10 career singles titles, including the 2023 US Open, and 2024 WTA Finals, and nine doubles titles, including the 2024 French Open.

Sinner Defeats De Jong To Qualify For Italian Open Second Round is first published on The Whistler Newspaper