Sinner and Cobolli miracle: Australian Open joys and sorrows (Musetti-Arnaldi)

Australian Open, Jannik Sinner overwhelms De Jong and advances to the third round of the Australian Open

Jannik Sinner easily advances to the third round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam round of the season, currently taking place on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. The 22 year old from South Tyrol, surpasses the 23 year old Dutchman Jesper De Jongnumber 161 in the ATP ranking and coming from the qualifiers, with a score of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 45 minutes. Now the Italian tennis player (fourth in the ATP ranking) will face the 23-year-old Argentinian Sebastian Baez, seeded number 26 in the tournament.

Australian Open, Flavio Cobolli in the third round against De Minaur

Flavio Cobolli flies to the third round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam round of the season, taking place on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. The 21 year old Roman, number 100 in the world and coming from the qualifiersdefeats the Russian Pavel Kotov, number 65 in the ATP ranking, with the score 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 after three hours and 16 minutes. The next obstacle will be very complicated for the Italian tennis player: he will face the world number 10 and 'host' Alex De Minaur.

Australian Open, Matteo Arnaldi knocked out with De Minaur in the 2nd round

Matteo Arnaldi's run at the Australian Open ends in the second round, first round of the Grand Slam of the season, currently taking place on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. The 22-year-old Ligurian, number 41 in the world, loses to the Australian Alex De Minaur, number 10 in the ATP ranking and seeding, with a clear score of 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 in just over two hours of play.

Australian Open, Lorenzo Musetti out in the second round

Lorenzo Musetti's run at the Australian Open ends in the second round, the first Grand Slam round of the season, currently taking place on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. The 21 year old Tuscan, number 28 in the world and 25th in the seeding, loses to the 19-year-old Frenchman Luca Van Assche, number 79 in the ATP ranking, with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-0 after three hours and 49 minutes. Musetti leads two sets to one, from 3-3 in the fourth set he loses the last 9 games of the match and has to give up.

Australian Open, Sinner, 'very positive balance, I felt the ball well'

“The balance today is very positive overall, I felt the ball very well, since warming up this morning I felt good. Maybe I could have done something better but in a 3 out of 5 match there can be small drops, but I have to admit that today's drops were tiny. If I had to highlight an aspect of my game that I am particularly satisfied with, I would say the backhand, this shot worked really well today. I was also solid on my serve and also good at reading his serve, which wasn't easy.” explains Jannik Sinner in the press conference after the victory in sets over the Dutchman Jesper De Jong, in the second round of the Australian Open.

“Today the slice backhand also worked, I still go a little bit at times but in this match I felt it well -explains the blue one-. Now it comes a little more naturally but I have to keep working on it. The general sensitivity of the hand has improved, in training we try many situations that can then be recreated in the match. I feel the ball better and on occasion it comes in handy.” Fair play and nice words for the beaten opponent. “The score makes the victory seem clearer than what the field said –the analysis of the blue tennis player-. Jesper is an excellent player, he is young and he was the protagonist of a great tournament here; if he continues like this I'm sure we'll always see him in the most important main draws. I wish him all the best because he is a good guy, a nice person and a great player.”

The routine on the pitch and the routine off the pitch; the construction of a champion also involves what happens on the day off: “It's not just the day of the match that counts, the days when you don't play are very important, perhaps in some ways even more important. It's important to use them to rest a bit, to train and take your mind off tennis a bit. I don't do anything special… I usually wake up, do a long physical session, do some tennis and go back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the next day's match,” concludes Sinner.

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