Jannik Sinner the Italian tennis player, fought hard to bounce back from the brink of defeat at the 2022 Dubai Tennis Championships.
The fourth seed fought hard to secure three match point opportunities in the second set tiebreak before beating Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
“It was a very tough match,” admits Sinner. “I know him, but we’ve never played against each other. It was our first meeting and a challenging one, securing three match points.”
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Despite struggling to find a rhythm for most of the matches, the world number 10 stepped up his game to claim his first win against world number 43 Davidovich Fokina.
After conceding the first set, the Italian tennis player was more persistent in the second set, including forcing the tiebreak round. Coming down 3/6, he came back with all his might and grabbed five points in a row to force a decisive set.
The turn of momentum was more complete for the fourth seed in the deciding set. He saved a break for the 4-3 before converting a second match point opportunity.
The Italian’s rise was helped by consistent serve after he won 78 percent of the points on his first serve.
Now, Sinner will challenge former world number 1 Andy Murray in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Murray won their previous meeting in Stockholm last season in straight sets.
Like Jannik Sinner, Murray had to give his best before picking up a 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Australian Christopher O’Connell.
Second seed Andrey Rublev started his second straight title win in a convincing manner after he broke two straight defeats to Briton Dan Evans to win 6-4, 7-5 by converting a seventh match point opportunity.
Champions in Marseille last week, Rublev struck with 28 winners, including eight aces to beat Evans in a match that lasted 1 hour 36 minutes.
The next opponent of world number 7 Rublev is world number 60, Soonwoo Kwon who slaughtered Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 6-2.
While the defending champion, Aslan Karatsev was surprisingly eliminated from the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships against Mackenzie McDonald.
Karatsev won their first meeting in the second round of the Australian Open, but world number 61 McDonald showed no trepidation when they met in Dubai and clinched a 7-5, 6-3 victory.
In the second round, McDonald will face Filip Krajinovic who frustrate Malek Jaziri 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
