RIYADH: World No. 1 Jannik Sinner made a powerful start to his Six Kings Slam title defence in Riyadh by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets on the opening day of the tournament.
Under the lights of Kingdom Arena on Wednesday, Sinner displayed the control, aggression and composure that have made him the sport’s newest standard-bearer.
The Italian — who has already beaten Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz this season — looked sharp throughout, dictating play with precision from the baseline.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Sinner reflected on what his wins over tennis’ biggest names have revealed about his game.
“Two different opponents (Novak and Alcaraz), two different kind of game style sets,” he said, answering a question from Arab News.
“Every match when you play against them, you need to be at your best, at your peak if you want to win against them — and that’s very, very difficult.”
He added: “I’m happy to be here, happy to measure myself against the best players in the world, and then we’ll see what comes out. We all hope for a good match.”
When asked what drives him most in a tournament without ranking points, Sinner said: “Well, passion.”
“You measure yourself against the best players in the world. I would lie if there’s no motivation for the money — we all know what’s on the line.”
He went on to stress the broader purpose of competing in Riyadh. “We would like to make the sport bigger — that’s why we come here,” he said.
“It’s a very important part of global tennis. Especially in the future, it’s going to be very important. We are happy to bring tennis here, to promote it in the best possible way.”
“To do that, we need the best players in the world to come here and show how good and healthy tennis actually is,” he added.
Tsitsipas, meanwhile, acknowledged Sinner’s dominance and pinpoint execution.
“I feel like he was a bit higher than me on certain occasions,” he told Arab News. “He was able to come up with winners in moments that I wasn’t the first.”
He added: “He was able to generate a lot more winners and shots that were unreturned, and I wasn’t able to do that as well. I kept working harder and more for my points, and he kept economizing and just worked whenever it was necessary.”
“I did lose a little bit of rhythm at some point, but I was able to start rallies and broke him twice, I believe,” Tsitsipas said. “It was just a question of managing my serve better.”
Reflecting on his performance, he noted: “I really did try hard. I was smacking the ball, sometimes unnecessarily hard, because I felt like the ball wasn’t penetrating throughout the court — and that was my biggest issue today.”
Earlier in the day, Taylor Fritz made a statement of his own, overpowering Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 to book a semifinal showdown with Alcaraz.
With the win, Sinner now sets up a blockbuster showdown with Djokovic — a rematch of last year’s semifinal, where the Italian edged the 24-time Grand Slam champion in three sets before going on to lift the title.
