By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Jannik Sinner cruised to victory over Tomas Machac in the opening round of the Qatar Open on Monday in his first match since his unsuccessful Australian Open title defence.
Sinner won 6-1 6-4 – wrapping up the first set in 27 minutes- and was then interviewed by former England footballer Rio Ferdinand.
Sinner will face Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in the last 16, with the world number 53 having beaten local favourite Mubarak Shannan Zayid 6-0 6-2.
“Today was a little bit worse than yesterday,” Sinner said of the windy Doha conditions. “But you have to adapt to every situation and condition on the court. We also played a couple of matches before, so I knew a little [about] what to expect. I felt good on court today. Physically I feel good. Every match is going to get tougher, so hopefully I will be ready for the next one.”
Sixth seed Jakub Mensik is also through to the last 16 having come from behind to beat Great Britain’s Jan Choinski. After losing a first-set tie-break to the world number 124, the Czech number one recovered to win 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 6-4.