French Open 2025: 'Super' Jannik Sinner powers through to last-16

Time of India

2 days ago

Italy's Jannik Sinner in action at the 2025 French Open. (AP)
Paris:
As the courtside clock closed in on an hour of match time, the capacity crowd at Suzanne Lenglen erupted into a joyous celebration. The
French Open
third-round clash was a dozen games old and spectators were showing appreciation generally reserved for the winner of a close contest.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner had pulled away to a dominant 6-0, 5-0 lead when Jiri Lehecka, the world No. 34, stopped his opponent's run of games and opened his account on the scoreboard. It was that kind of a performance from the three-time Major winner, clean as a whistle.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
SUBSCRIBE NOW!
'It was like I was playing against myself, he was two times better than me in everything,' said Lehecka, who was left shaking his head for a good part of the match.
The 23-year-old had nine unforced errors and 31 winners while going full throttle, coming through 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 35 minutes.
That level of dominance against a fellow 23-year-old, who was ranked in the top-25 three months ago, should force organizers to think twice before scheduling the Italian for a night match. A 95-minute game wouldn't cut for the paying public, would it?
The reason why men play most, if not all, the night matches at Roland Garros is because there's a chance women's matches could go quickly — too quickly.
Sinner, who improved to 15-1 on the season, won 29 of 35 points on his first serve and 17 of 20 on the second serve as the skies went from cloudy to clear in the course of their time on court.
Sinner, who returned earlier this month from a three-month ban for testing positive for Clostebol, may be short of matches but he's looking fresher at a time when players are already complaining of fatigue barely five months into the season.
'Sometimes in these kinds of matches (things) can change quickly, if you don't start well in one set the match can go long, and then you cannot control it. We saw that on occasions here,' Sinner said, perhaps alluding to Carlos Alcaraz's third-round clash against Damir Dzumhur.
The Bosnian surprised the defending champion in the third set on Friday night and broke the world No. 2 in the second game of the fourth set, then taking a handy 3-1 lead.
'You have to focus and (have the) level always very, very high, because unexpected things can happen. Jiri is an amazing player. He has shown that throughout his career.'
Sinner admitted to feeling good at practice this morning, but didn't think form necessarily transcribed to a match court — especially given the vagaries of the conditions players have been dealing with this past week.
'I try to control whatever I can, and today I did that,' he said.
'This morning I felt the ball very good, but conditions can change from one moment to another.'
The 6ft 3in Italian will meet Russian Andrey Rublev in the fourth round on Monday. Sinner leads the head-to-head 6-3, having won four of their last five meetings.
Rublev advanced to the fourth round after a walkover from home favourite Arthur Fils, who withdrew because of a stress fracture of the lower back.