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World No. 4 Jannik Sinner continued his red-hot run as he clinched his second tour-level title of the season, defeating Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-4 to win the ABN AMRO Open for the first time.
The 22-year-old used his typical brand of clean-hitting, aggressive tennis to defeat the Australian in Rotterdam. Sinner hit 23 winners and recovered from losing a break advantage in both sets to win his 15th tour-level match in a row after two hours and five minutes. He has a perfect 7-0 record in the pair's ATP Head2Head competition. Sinner, who won his first major title at the Australian Open last month, will reach a career-high No. 3 in the ATP Rankings on Monday. No Italian player has ever been ranked this high. "My team, we did a really good job a few weeks ago and now we made a very good job here. I am really proud with the level that I played throughout this whole week. We have been in tough situations but we handled it the right way. We will always try to improve, it is the most important," Sinner said ad quoted by ATP. Following his run at the Australian Open, the Italian played with confidence and purpose all week, dropping only one set at the indoor hard competition to claim his 12th tour-level championship. Bruising baseline rallies were a recurring motif throughout the opening set of this high-intensity match. Sinner failed to serve out at 5-4 after taking the break in the first set, and De Minaur saved four set points to equalise. However, the Italian would not be denied, breaking the deadlock in the following game when De Minaur opted to leave a shot that went in. The Italian then held comfortably and moved ahead. The top seed was forced to dig deep at times in the second set against De Minaur, who tested the Italian to his limits with his flat groundstrokes. However, as in prior months, Sinner had the answers. Sinner was pegged back after taking the first break, much like in the first set, but he fought and hit through the fifth seed to win, lifting his arms in triumph. (ANI)
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