MELBOURNE - Jannik Sinner admitted he already has half an eye on an Australian Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic after a hard-fought opening-round victory over Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Italian fourth seed enjoyed a breakthrough 2023, winning his first Masters title, in Toronto, and reaching the championship match against Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals.
It sparked expectations that it is only a matter of time before he wins a major and he came through a tough encounter at Melbourne Park to open his 2024 account, beating the 59th-ranked Dutchman 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena.
Good for me to get out there, and obviously it was not easy. I won in straight sets, but it was not that easy, he said.
He played well, he served well, but I managed somehow to get the breaks in important moments. I'm happy to be back on court to compete, and that's what I love to do. So it was a nice feeling.
It was Sinner's first competitive match of the year after he opted against playing a warm-up tournament, but he showed few signs of rust.
Should he keep the momentum going, 10-time champion Djokovic is a potential semi-final opponent.
It's Sunday today, it's so long to go. But for sure you are aiming for these matches, he said of possibly meeting the Serbian superstar.
I don't want to say much more about this at the moment because I feel that there is still a lot of work to do to get to this point. So yeah, let's see. Nobody can tell the future.
As I said, obviously we aim to play big matches in big stadiums, so let's see.
Sinner broke Van de Zandschulp's opening service game and powered through the first set in 46 minutes.
But the Dutchman, a former US Open quarter-finalist, refused to go quietly, hitting the ball so hard in the second set that his racquet strings snapped.
There was little between them as they battled to 5-5 before Van de Zandschulp netted a backhand to give the Italian the crucial break and he served out for a two-set lead.
Once again, the Dutchman put up resistance in the third, breaking for a 2-0 advantage.
But it was a temporary wobble by Sinner, who responded by breaking twice in succession and surged 4-2 clear, lead that proved decisive.
