Jannik Sinner passed a tough test against Aslan Karatsev to win a place in the second round of the 2021 Lyon Open.
The Italian was defenseless in the first set, but he came back to beat Russian Aslan Karatsev 0-6 6-3 6-4 after 2 hours 32 minutes.
“It was a fierce match,” admitted Jannik Sinner who lost to Karatsev by three sets in Dubai in the 2021 season so now the head to head between the two players is a 1-1 draw.
“He’s a great player especially this season that claiming some incredible results. I had to play extra hard and I was happy to win that game. It must have been great to have the support of the crowd to get up after Aslan started the match so quickly.”
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27-year-old Karatsev won the first six games, including securing three break points before the sixth seed found rhythm.
World number 17 Sinner started the second set 4-0 and after he was broken in the fifth game that he secured three break points to hold a 5-2 lead before pushing for the decisive set.
The match was postponed for 70 minutes when world number 25 Karatsev took a 2-1 lead. From there the two players chased each other to a 4-4 draw before the Italian snatched the last two games and claimed his 21st win of the season (21-9) with a powerful serve.
The 19-year-old won the second ATP tournament title of his career in February at Melbourne’s Great Ocean Road Open (beating Stefano Travaglia). He also made it to the final of the Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career at the Miami Open (lost to Hubert Hurkacz) last month.
For a place in the Lyon Open quarter-finals that Sinner will challenge the host and Arthur Rinderknech who enters the Lyon Open this season as a lucky loser.
World number 125 Rinderknech converted four of the nine break point opportunities he created to knock out Swedish national Mikael Ymer 6-3 6-7 6-2 in 2 hours 22 minutes. The victory was Rinderknech’s fourth ATP tournament win.
