Jannik Sinner overcame Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round of the Australian Open on Sunday, showing that he had overcome his early-season rust.
Sinner was marginally off the pace after missing warm-up events leading up to the year’s first major. Sinner had a great end to 2023, making it to the ATP Finals title match before pushing Italy to win the Davis Cup.
After making it to the 2022 quarterfinals at Melbourne Park, Sinner is hoping to make another deep run there, but for now, his main priority was to improve before playing Argentine Pedro Cachin or Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong.
Sinner remarked regarding a possible semi-final clash with Novak Djokovic. He said: “It’s Sunday today. It’s so long to go. But for sure, you’re aiming for these matches. But I go day by day. You have one job at a time. Today was one player. Wednesday is going to be a different player, and you have to try to beat this guy, no?”
Sinner further said: “I don’t want to say much more about this at the moment, because I feel like there’s still a lot of work to do to get to this point. We aim to play big matches in big stadiums, so let’s see. It’s going to be an interesting tournament.”
Jannik Sinner on possibly playing Novak Djokovic in Australian Open SF:
“It’s Sunday today (smiling). It's so long to go. I go day by day, to be honest. You have one job at a time. Today was one player. Wednesday is going to be a different player, & you have to try to beat this… pic.twitter.com/w1eJUWk9kK
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 14, 2024
Sinner at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2024
WWWWWWWWWL Now ranked no.4 (career-high), the Italian owns a 1-0 record in 2024. Sinner is competing at the Australian Open where he toppled the world no.59 Botic Van De Zandschulp 6-4 7-5 6-3.
Jannik Sinner will fight against the world no.148 Jesper De Jong in the 2nd round. They have never competed against each other till now on the main tour.
The Italian won 11 titles in his career: 4 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts and 6 on indoor courts. (See the list of his titles)
Sinner is scheduled to compete next at the Australian Open (Australian Open). He will start from the main draw that will commence on the 14th of January.
Djokovic at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2024
LWWWWWWLWW Now ranked no.1, Novak owns an overall 3-1 match record in 2024. Novak is playing at the moment at the Australian Open where he beat the world no.178 Dino Prizmic 6-2 6-75 6-3 6-4.
Novak won 98 titles in his career: 52 on hard courts, 19 on clay courts, 19 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Djokovic will compete next at the Australian Open (Australian Open). He will start the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 14th of January.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic fought against each other 6 times. The head to head is 4-2 for Djokovic. Before, the last time they squared off, Jannik Sinner won 6-2 2-6 7-5 in the Rubber 2 in 1 (Davis Cup, World Group, SF, ITA) in November 2023.
