Italian World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and American fifth seed Taylor Fritz kicked off the Nitto ATP Finals with straight-sets victories on Sunday in Turin, Italy.
To begin round-robin action in the Ilie Nastase Group, Sinner defeated No. 7 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-3, 6-4, and Fritz upended Russian fourth seed Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-3.
The top eight players on the ATP Tour reached the season-ending Finals and were drawn into two groups. The top two players after the group stage will move on to a four-man knockout round.
The other group features Alexander Zverev of Germany, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, Norway’s Casper Ruud and Russia’s Andrey Rublev. Novak Djokovic, who won the last two years, is not competing due to injury.
On Sunday, Sinner hit eight aces with just one double fault and finished the match with an 18-7 advantage in total winners as he coasted past de Minaur in an hour and 25 minutes.
“I’m glad that I managed to play this kind of level,” said Sinner, who lost to Djokovic in the championship match last year. “It’s a great start for my side for this event, for this tournament, considering I haven’t played an official match in four weeks.
“Every match, it’s very difficult to play against (de Minaur). He’s a great fighter. You have to earn every point you play. Every time we play, he changes a couple of things, so I have to be very aware. It’s very difficult. We don’t have to see only the result, but also how the match goes.”
Fritz’s serve was his biggest strength in his opening match. He won 33 of his 39 first-service points (84.6 percent) and hit nine aces without a double fault. By contrast, Medvedev had eight aces but suffered eight double faults.
“(The serve) was a big part of it for sure,” Fritz said. “(Medvedev) is such a good returner. You can make a lot of first serves, but if they are not very high quality, he just puts so many returns in the court.
“It was huge for me. I hit a lot of lines, a lot of spots to start out games.”
Fritz and Sinner are scheduled to square off on Tuesday for their second group match, following Medvedev facing de Minaur.
–Field Level Media
