Jannik Sinner is opening in Dubai these days. © ANSA / DAVE HUNT / STF
Jannik Sinner did not play a tournament game for four weeks and instead caused a lot of conversation away from the court with his change of coach. But now the 20-year-old is back – and extremely successfully.
February 21, 2022
From: fop
On Monday afternoon, Sinner was in doubles action with his friend Hubert Hurkacz at the “Dubai Duty Free Championships”. The tenth in the world rankings from South Tyrol and the eleventh from Poland had more trouble than they could have wished for at the start, but in the end they held their own against the Kazakh-Turkish duo Alexander Bublik/Altug Celikbilek 7: 6 and 6: 4.
In the quarter-finals, Sinner and Hurkacz will now face either the Indian doubles featuring Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan or the duo John Peers/Filip Polasek (Australia/Slovakia).
However, the focus at Sinner in Dubai is not on the doubles competition, but primarily on his first round match in singles against the in-form Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Sextner and the 22-year-old Spaniard, who is ranked 47th in the world, will face each other for the first time on Tuesday.
A special game on Tuesday
Sinner’s comeback appearance is particularly exciting because it is his first game since the quarter-final defeat at the Australia Open against Stefanos Tsitsipas and at the same time the first game under coach Simone Vagnozzi. This should lead the youngster further towards the absolute top of the world after his surprising separation from coaching guru Riccardo Piatti. The first step should be taken on Tuesday at the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai.
