Jannik Sinner swept past James Duckworth 6-1 6-2 in 61 minutes minutes to reach the second round at the Bett1 HULKS Championships in Cologne. Sinner converted five of his seven break points and saved both the break points he faced in the fifth game of the second set.
Sinner got the first two breaks of the match at love in the first and fifth games to open up a 4-1 lead. The 2019 Next Gen player and 2020 Roland Garros quarter finalist converted his third break point at deuce after a double fault from Duckworth in the seventh game to close out the first set 6-1 after just 23 minutes.
The second serve went on serve in the first four games before Siinner saved two break points to hold serve at deuce after a 12-minute marathon game. The Italian 19-year-old star broke twice in a row to close out the second set 6-2, when Duckworth missed a forehand volley wide.
“Not many unforced errors, I served quite well. I am very happy about my first match. I felt great on court, moving quite well. Obviously the second set there was one game when I was serving in which he pushed a little bit more the ball, so I was a little bit rushed, but I think it was a solid performance”, said Sinner.
Sinner set up a second round match against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who came back from a break down in the third set to beat Tennys Sandgren 6-3 3-6 6-3 after 2 hours and 17 minutes.
Sinner has moved up to world number 46 after reaching the quarter final at Roland Garros.
Spanish Next Gen player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Damir Dzumhur 6-2 6-3 with two breaks i each set scoring his 10th match win of the season. Davidovich Fokina, who lost to Alexander Zverev last week at the bett1 HULKS Indoors last week in Cologne, will face Steve Johnson in the second round.
German brothers Alexander and Misha Zverev beat Aisam UI Haq Qureshi 6-4 6-2 to reach the second round of the doubles tournament. Sasha and Misha fended off all three break points they faced to set up a second round match against either Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Fernando Verdasco.
Max Purcell and Luke Seville edged Felix Auger Aliassime and Robert Lindstedt 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (1-7) 10-7.
