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Jannik Sinner overcame a second-set hiccup to defeat Benjamin Bonzi 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 after two hours and four minutes at the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Wednesday.
"For sure it's tough when you come quite late to the other tournament, so I'm very happy about my performance today. It was not easy for me. We made a lot of unforced errors today. But still, I tried to stay focussed [on] my game," ATP.com quoted Sinner as saying. "I started off very well and I finished quite well, so I'm happy. Let's see what's going to happen in the next round," Sinner said. Sinner improved to 9-2 on the season by saving two of the three break points he faced and winning 46% of his return points. He'll look to double his win total against top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas (1-5). Fourth seed Holger Rune advanced as well, defeating qualifier Constant Lestienne 6-4, 6-4. To advance to the second round, the Danish star broke the Frenchman's serve four times. "It was tricky. It's a lot about finding the rhythm here in the beginning of the tournament and first match you have to really be on your toes, especially I played a qualifier today who already has two matches in his bag. It made it more difficult, but I'm happy how I handled every situation today," Rune said. Former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka has already advanced to the quarter-finals after defeating another former Top 10 player, Richard Gasquet, 6-3, 6-3. The Swiss have a strong history of success in the Netherlands, having won the tournament in 2015 and reaching the final in 2019. In the final eight, Wawrinka will face the winner of Sinner and Tsitsipas. Earlier in the day, in his first competitive action since the Australian Open, Daniil Medvedev battled back from a set down to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The sixth seed earned a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory, turning the match around by winning nine of 10 games after falling behind 0-1 in the second set. "I just managed to play a little bit better. I don't want to say that I played much better, but a little bit better, managed to use the crucial opportunities a little bit better and I feel like he was missing a bit more than in the first set," Medvedev said of the turnaround. "All together, I feel like I changed just a few millimetres of tactics, if we can say like this. All of this happened to work, so I'm really happy about it," he added, later explaining that he varied his position on return, including moving closer to the baseline on second serves. (ANI)
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