Jannik Sinner has reached the quarter finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells for the first time in his career with a 6-1 6-4 win over Stan Wawrinka in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Sinner had previously advanced to the fourth round at this tournament twice in a row in the past two editions.
Sinner saved eight of nine break points in a match featuring a lot of deuce games and 23 break points, including all five in the first set and two from 15-40 at 4-3 in the second set.
Wawrinka earned an early break to open up a 2-0 lead at the start of the second set. Sinner converted on his seventh break point in a marathon fifth game and held on his serve to win his fourth consecutive game for 4-2. Sinner saved two break points to hold serve with ace for 5-3 and served out the win on his first match point. Sinner improved to 3-2 in his five head-to-head matches against Wawrinka, including his two previous wins in Wimbledon 2022 and Rotterdam 2023.
Sinner has reached the quarter finals or better in four of his six tournaments in 2023. He won the sixth title of his career in Montpellier beating Maxime Cressy in the final and finished runner-up to Danil Medvedev in the Rotterdam final. He also lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round at the Australian Open and to Sebastian Korda in Adelaide 1 last January. He has a win-loss record of 15-3 this year.
“The scoreline is wrong today. I felt like we both were playing very well, long rallies, and he was getting every time very close. I got lucky a little bit there at 4-3 in the second set when I was serving, he barely missed the return. Things can change so quickly. I am very happy to be in the next round but obviously it was a very match today. Things can change so quickly. I am very happy in the next round but obviously it was a very tough match”, said Sinner.
