Jannik Sinner goes past Alex Michelsen at the Cincinnati Open

Top seed Jannik Sinner defeated America’s Alex Michelsen in the second round of the Cincinnati Open by 6-4, 7-5 at Centre Court on Wednesday. The Italian had to save eight break points but he was able to wrap up the match in straight sets.

With this win, Sinner improved to 25-2 on hard courts this season as he continued his good form. The youngster admitted it was a tough match for him as he was playing his first match of the tournament.

“It was a tough match. He played already some matches but for me it was the first match here, so I tried to feel the conditions a but more,” he said post-match. “I’m very happy to be in the next round. For me this is a place where I used to struggle a lot in the past years, so let’s see what I can do this time.

“I’m trying to stay in a positive mindset, positive moment, and I think that today also brought me the win.”

Sinner will next take on Australia’s Jordan Thompson in the round of 16.

On the other hand, Stefanos Tsitsipas registered a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win against Jan-Lennard Struff. The Greek suffered an opening round loss in the Canadian Open but he bounced back against the German despite losing the opening set.

“I felt like I was in a great flow state towards the end of the match with my serve,” said Tsitsipas in his post-match interview. “Immediately my groundstrokes improved, immediately my confidence to come forward and close in improved, so there were a lot of improvements that contributed to my game today.

“I was down a break, and I managed to keep on fighting and get the break back. Suddenly I felt like I was starting to figure out what really worked behind his serve. He made a few double faults, and I took that chance, got myself in the lead, and I think once I started reminding myself of my best qualities as a player, these things really started working on court. It gave me a massive push to [close out the match].”

Tsitsipas will next take on Jack Draper on Thursday.