Montreal (AFP) – Top seed Jannik Sinner took his place in the ATP Montreal Masters quarter-finals on Saturday as organisers raced to get the event back on schedule. Sinner posted a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Canadian-born Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, advancing in 80 minutes in challenging, breezy conditions. All play at the US Open tune-up was wiped out on Friday by rain, with some players — Sinner included — due to play twice on Saturday. The event ends on Monday due to Paris Olympic scheduling.
World number one Sinner improved to 24-1 this season on hardcourt. The 22-year-old Italian will bid for the semi-finals later when he faces Andrey Rublev, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Brandon Nakashima. Rublev, seeded fifth, will play his ninth quarter-final of the season as he seeks a 31st match victory of 2024. He also completed a career matched set of quarter-final matches at all nine Masters 1000 tournaments.
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Sinner said that while playing twice in a day is difficult, he could only look as far ahead as his first match of the day. “It felt like a good match but I knew I had to try and play one more time,” Sinner said. “There’s not much being happy afterwards…to recover is the most important thing. When you’re a set and a break up, you want to try and win in straight sets. To get to the second match, you have to win the first one, even if it takes three or four hours.”
Former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori extended his comeback story as he saved eight of 10 break points in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Portugal’s Nuno Borges, last month’s Bastad champion, for a last-eight spot. Delayed second-round matches were wrapped in early afternoon, with recovering Hubert Hurkacz leading the way with his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) fightback win over qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis, the fourth seed’s first outing since knee surgery.
Poland’s Hurkacz had not played since quitting injured in the Wimbledon second round and then heading home for a knee operation, with doctors telling him his season was over. “I’m happy I’m able to compete and I wasn’t that slow today,” he said. “Since this was the first match since the surgery, it was a little bit unknown. I’m feeling quite decent. I spent a lot of last week in the gym.”
Others into the third round were last week’s Washington titleholder Sebastian Korda — a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) winner over fellow American Taylor Fritz — and France’s Arthur Rinderknech, who defeated Italian Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2.
© 2024 AFP
