Jannik Sinner in the third round. © ANSA / YOAN VALAT

He had to work for about four hours, but in the end only the win counted: Yannick Sener in the third round of the French Open thanks to a real effort.

26. May 2022

From: Liu

Instead of as originally planned, the game took place not on Court 7, but on the slightly larger Court 14 – and that’s in slower conditions, because conditions are cold. Sinner didn’t deal with that throughout the match, unlike Carballes Baena, who featured a clay-court tennis textbook. However, since there were several chapters between the players, the favorite finally prevailed. After a failed start, Sinner won by 3:6, 6:4, 6:4, 6:3. In the third round, Simone Vagnozzi’s pupil met Mackenzie McDonald (ATP 60), who defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili (ATP 24) in three sets .

At first everything went as usual. Sinner dictated the game, and chased the Spaniard across the field, but missed several break balls in his serve games. This knocked South Tyrol out of the game: in the long rallies he could not find a way against the strong defender Karbales Baena – also due to circumstances. This increased the pressure on Sener’s sending. However, this disappointed him: he fired very few of his serves at first and therefore received almost no free points. Punishment? In the first set, Sinner lost three consecutive service matches and thus lost the set 3:6.

The sinner resists

Carballes Baena also had the upper hand at the start of Division Two. The guy from Tenerife got two break balls at first, but left them unused. The sinner somehow saved himself and gained confidence. Although not everything was going smoothly, now it plays a little more freely. The number of errors decreased, the number of winners increased. The 20-year-old managed a precious break that he defended with difficulty until the end of the set, as he had to make three tackles in the final.

Roberto Carpeles Baena showed great tennis. © ANSA / Yuan Valat

From now on, the match has changed: sextner service games smoothly disappeared – also thanks to increased aggressiveness – while Carballes Baena was always under pressure. And so he received a fracture at the start of the third set. When the score was 3:1, Sinner found an opportunity to achieve 4:1, but recklessly missed it. Since the sextner is now serving an 80 percent service rate, and has continued to stop, and Carballes Baena has also loosened up a bit, he hasn’t retaliated. Sener defended the lead and won Round 6:4. After about two and a half hours, it was time for the fourth set.

It’s just getting hot for a moment

This started with two pennies: First, Sinner lost a point after hitting the net with a ball. Shortly thereafter, he had to take a break, even though he was already leading the match by 40:15 and didn’t convert a single hit. This infuriated South Tyrol so much that he threw his racket on the ground in a fit of rage. With the match’s best point, which he finished with a smashing backhand, he quickly regained the smash. Driven by the fans, who were almost all on the Sinners’ side, he took a step forward and advanced 3-2 with a break.

Not many fans missed the match. © ANSA / Yuan Valat

Having survived a five-set match in the first round, the Spaniard’s strides are now heavier. But the glaring stranger did not think to give up. With a score of 2:4, in his view, he destroyed five balls in a long game before leading Sinner 30:0 on serve. But ranked 12th in the world. He kept his composure – and after a few moments he made it all clear with the first match point.