The Russian defeated Japanese wildcard Rai Sakamoto
\n MIAMI
\nWorld number two Jannik Sinner made a smooth start Saturday at the Miami Open, where defending champion Jakub Mensik shook off a \u201chorrible\u201d first set to win his opening match.
\nSix days after he lifted the Indian Wells trophy, Sinner launched his pursuit of tennis\u2019 \u201cSunshine Double\u201d in confident style with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 76th-ranked Damir Dzumhur.
\n\u201cFirst-round matches are never easy,\u201d said the 24-year-old Italian, who won the 2024 Miami crown.
\nAfter beating Daniil Medvedev for his first Indian Wells title, Sinner is trying to become the first to sweep the Indian Wells and Miami ATP Masters 1000 titles since Roger Federer in 2017.
\nHe pocketed the first set against Dzumhur in 34 minutes and broke the Bosnian for a 2-1 lead in the second set before breaking again on match point with a backhand winner.
\n\u201cStarting off with a break straight away, I tried to be a bit aggressive,\u201d said Sinner, who dropped just eight points on his serve. \u201cAt times it worked very well, at times I made couple of unforced errors. But I didn\u2019t have a lot of time to adjust here. It\u2019s very different than in Indian Wells.\u201d
\nFormer number one Medvedev also had little time to adjust, but he managed to fight back for a 6-7 (10\/12), 6-3, 6-1 victory over 19-year-old Japanese wildcard Rei Sakamoto.
\nMensik, who fell in the third round at Indian Wells, was feeling the after-effects of illness as well as the pressure of defending his title in a rocky first set but righted the ship to beat Australian Adam Walton 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
\n\u201cThe first set it was horrible from my side,\u201d the Czech said.
\nAfter surrendering his serve twice in the first set Mensik regrouped to break Walton in the opening game of the second set on the way to forcing a third and with a break in hand for a 3-1 lead rolled home.
\n\u201cIt was really difficult to come back to the match rhythm,\u201d Mensik said. \u201c(I\u2019m) really happy that mentally I stayed focused and tough. The pressure that was around, I tried not to focus on that, tried to focus on my game.\u201d
\nFourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over 133rd-ranked American Martin Damm. But eighth-seeded home hope Ben Shelton was ousted by Kazakhstan\u2019s Alexander Shevchenko 6-7 (3\/7), 7-6 (7\/3), 6-3.
\nGauff fight-back
\nFourth-seeded Coco Gauff led the way into the women\u2019s fourth round, roaring back for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory over fellow American Alycia Parks.
\nTeenagers Mirra Andreeva and Victoria Mboko booked a last-16 meeting that will be their third clash of the WTA season.
\nEighth-seeded Russian Andreeva defeated Czech Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (7\/4), 6-2, while 10th-seeded Canadian Mboko downed Russian qualifier Anastasia Zakharova 6-1, 7-5.
\nAndreeva, 18, and 19-year-old Mboko have split their last two matches, Andreeva winning in the final at Adelaide in January before Mboko sent her packing in the third round at Doha \u2014 saving a match point in the three-set win and going on to reach the final.
\nAlexandra Eala, whose surprise semi-final run last year launched her rise from 140th in the world to her current 29th, reached the last 16 with a 6-3, 7-6 (7\/2) victory over Poland\u2019s Magda Linette \u2014 who had toppled third-ranked compatriot Iga Swiatek in the second round.
\nWomen\u2019s second-round play wrapped up as the rain-hit tournament got back on schedule.
\nFifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula, runner up to Aryna Sabalenka last year, advanced when ailing British opponent Francesca Jones retired while trailing 6-1, 3-0 in their match.
\nAustralian qualifier Talia Gibson \u2014 coming off an impressive quarter-final run in Indian wells \u2014 took down four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka of Japan 7-5, 6-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Russian defeated Japanese wildcard Rai Sakamoto MIAMI World number two Jannik Sinner made a smooth start Saturday at the Miami Open, where defending champion Jakub Mensik shook off a \u201chorrible\u201d first set to win his opening match. Six days after he lifted the Indian Wells trophy, Sinner launched his pursuit of tennis\u2019 \u201cSunshine Double\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-537776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n