NEW YORK – Jannik Sinner started his U.S. Open Championship defense with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 win over Vit Kopriva on Tuesday, looking completely recovering from a recent illness.
The highest-ranked sinner had to stop playing in the Cincinnati final against Carlos Alcaraz on August 18, as he was sick, exited the U.S. Open Mixed Tag Team Championship that began the next day and said he still didn’t feel 100% late last week.
But he has extra time to recover, the first round is now spread over the start of the game’s new Sunday in three days, and nothing seems wrong when the No. 1 seed passes through his Czech opponent in 1 hour and 39 minutes.
“Obviously, I’m glad I’m healthy again and we’ve tried our best to be at our best here,” Sina said.
The Italian won the second Grand Slam title last year when he beat Taylor Fritz on the grass in Flushing, before adding two more to this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon. He is trying to join Rod Laver, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the only one who reached all four Grand Slam finals in the same year that began in 1968.
“Amazing memories,” Sina said of returning to New York. “Obviously, it’s different every year.
He won 26 games on the hard court before the Cincinnati final.
