INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) – Jannik Sinner dominated Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis with a score of 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the third round at Indian Wells, extending his impressive winning streak to 13 matches this season. Meanwhile, Andy Murray was defeated by Andrey Rublev with a score of 7-6(3), 6-1.
Playing on centre court under sunny and breezy conditions in the California desert, Sinner managed to save a break point at 2-2 in the first set with a forehand winner. He then broke Kokkinakis’ serve to take a 5-3 lead and eventually secure the first set.
With a dominant performance, the Australian Open champion showed no signs of slowing down in the second set, only dropping five points to set up a third-round clash against either 25th seed Jan-Lennard Struff or Croatian Borna Coric.
Despite his impressive record of 26 wins in his last 27 matches, Sinner humbly stated that he is not invincible. “I’m not unbeatable, I’m just well-prepared,” he said during a press conference. “I worked really hard to be in this position.”
“Obviously it’s a position you dream of because winning a Grand Slam, that’s everyone’s dream, but you travel here, the conditions are different and then you have to find a way somehow,” Sinner added.
On the other hand, Rublev struggled with errors in the first set against Murray and had to save four set points while facing the vocal support of the crowd on Stadium 2. However, the Russian player improved his game in the second set, particularly with his forehand, to secure the victory and set up a third-round match against either American wild card Brandon Nakashima or Czech 32nd seed Jiri Lehecka.
“He had a lot of chances in the first set and I was lucky to win. Had I lost it, it would have been really, really tough,” Rublev commented on his match against Murray. “After the first set, I felt more confidence and I knew that it would be even tougher for Andy to keep up his consistency.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by William Mallard)
