12 on the trot: Jannik Sinner tops Monfils at Rotterdam

Jannik Sinner continued his winning ways on Thursday at the ABN Amro in Rotterdam, the top seed stretching his current win streak to 12 victories as he defeated French wildcard Gael Monfils 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals in his first event as a Grand Slam champion.

The Italian improves to 5-1 lifetime against Monfils, who carried an 11-match Rotterdam winning streak into the contest. A 2019 and 2020 champion at the ABN Amro, Monfils was toe-to-toe with Sinner, but lost the match due to a few lapses that let Sinner move ahead in the first and third sets.

Sinner felt that his own shakiness caused him to lose the middle set.

“It was one shaky game of mine in the second set,” he said. “After that things changed so fast. But I still believe these kinds of matches they help you a lot, especially mentally, when you don’t play your best tennis and you still try to find somehow the way to win. Against [Gael] it’s never easy.”

Sinner, ranked No 4, will face Canadian Milos Raonic next. He is 9-0 on the season, and he has won 25 of his last 26 matches against French players.

In the previous round of the Rotterdam tournament, the 22-year-old Italian won against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp (6-3, 6-3).

Monfils, ranked No 70, won against Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov (7-6 (4), 7-6 (5)) in the previous round of the Rotterdam tournament.

Rotterdam ATP 500, other second-round results (Rotterdam Ahoy, hard, EUR 2.134.985, most recent results first):

• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Hubert Hurkacz (4): 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4)
• Alexander Shevchenko beat Holger Rune (3): 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
• Grigor Dimitrov (6) beat Marton Fucsovics: 6-3, 7-5
• Andrey Rublev (2) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime: 3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-5
• Alex De Minaur (5) beat David Goffin (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Milos Raonic beat Alexander Bublik (8): 6-4, 6-4

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