ROTTERDAM - Italian rising star Jannik Sinner’s hard work finally paid off when he claimed one of the biggest wins of his career on Thursday, defeating world No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the Rotterdam Open quarter-finals.
The 21-year-old won 6-4, 6-3 in the last 16 of the ATP 500 tournament to end his four-match losing streak against the Greek.
“It means a lot, obviously. A lot of work behind. I’m very happy. I played some good tennis, very focused today,” Sinner was quoted as saying on the ATP Tour website.
“Hopefully, I can keep it going but for sure, Stef is an incredible player. I have a lot of respect for him. He played incredible tennis this year already.”
With the victory, Sinner improved to 2-5 in his head-to-head against Tsitsipas, who was the top seed in Rotterdam.
“Head-to-head I am still far back to him,” he added. “For me, this is a very important win. I lost a tough one in Australia (in the last 16 of the Australian Open), where I felt like I was playing great. Today I was also playing good.”
Sinner will next face Swiss Stan Wawrinka in the last eight – the result was unavailable at time of publication.
Canadian title-holder Felix Auger-Aliassime eased past Gregoire Barrere to also reach the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old from Montreal dispatched the last French player standing 6-4, 6-3 to set up a meeting with sixth seed Daniil Medvedev.
Third seed Auger-Aliassime secured his place on the back of a solid first service, firing nine aces.
Elsewhere, Veronika Kudermetova upset American teenager Coco Gauff 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and set up a semi-final with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek at the Qatar Open.
The Russian 25-year-old, ranked 11th, needed just over two hours to complete the victory over the world No. 6.
If she is to reach a first WTA final since Istanbul last April, Kudermetova will have to get past Swiatek, who reached the last four when last weekend’s Abu Dhabi title winner Belinda Bencic withdrew from their quarter-final.
Polish star Swiatek, a three-time Grand Slam champion, hardly broke a sweat in her opening match, dropping just one game to defeat Danielle Collins on Wednesday.
Last season, the 21-year-old kicked off her 37-match winning streak in Doha, where she captured her first WTA 1000-level hard-court title. AFP
