Looking imperious, Jannik Sinner cruises past Baez into week two at Australian Open

For those that worried about Jannik Sinner’s form before the Australian Open, due to the fact that the Italian had elected to forego a warmup tournament prior to taking his place in the main draw, worry no more.

After three rounds of tennis, the Italian is emerging as a title contender in Melbourne, and he continued his momentum on Friday with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, the No.26 seed.

Sinner, ranked No 4, will face the winner of the match between Tomas Machac and Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 15 seed, next.

He says he feels great on court after taking the time he needs to refresh after a long 2023 season.

“It is a little bit different,” Sinner said. “We made a good priority for the offseason, we tried to work hard, especially off the court, and I’m really happy how I’m feeling right now. In general it is a different choice, we played a couple of [exhibition] matches in Koo Yong, to have this match feeling a little bit coming here – at the moment I’m going well.”

Sinner has dropped just 22 games through three matches and has not surrendered a single set. The Italian reaches the round of 16 for the third consecutive year and the 11th time overall at the majors.

After reaching his maiden Grand Slam semifinal last year at Wimbledon, Sinner hopes to take the next step in 2024, but his road will be difficult in Melbourne, with Novak Djokovic waiting as his possible semi-final opponent.

For now he will focus on the task at hand, and try to continue putting his best foot forward in Melbourne.

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Earlier in the tournament, the 22-year-old Italian won against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp (6-4, 7-5, 6-3) and Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong (6-2, 6-2, 6-2).

Baez, ranked No 29, benefited from the abandonment of American J.J. Wolf (3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 3-0) and edged out Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan (7-5, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4) in the previous rounds.

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):

• Juncheng Shang vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Tommy Paul vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Cameron Norrie vs. Casper Ruud
• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Nuno Borges
• Ugo Humbert vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Arthur Cazaux vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Sebastian Korda vs. Andrey Rublev
• Alex De Minaur vs. Flavio Cobolli
• Novak Djokovic vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Ben Shelton
• Luca Van Assche vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas: friday
• Taylor Fritz vs. Fabian Marozsan: friday
• Tomas Machac vs. Karen Khachanov: friday