Sinner Surges Past Schwartzman In Barcelona

Consistency personified so far this season, Jannik Sinner held his nerve to down Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell for his 25th tour-level win of 2023.

The fourth-seeded Italian outlasted a typically resilient Schwartzman, who dug particularly deep in a topsy-turvy second set, on Pista Rafa Nadal. After dominating the opening set, Sinner clinched four of the seven breaks of serve in the second to wrap a one-hour, 40-minute victory in the second-round clash at the ATP 500.

“I think I started very well, especially in return games,” said Sinner. “I tried to stay quite aggressive, made a couple of unforced errors, but I have to remind myself that this is the first round for me. I tried to stay calm and obviously try in the best way in important moments.

“Now the main focus is to recover for tomorrow, and I restart tomorrow hopefully with better feelings than today. Diego is a very tough player to play against and I am very happy.”

After reaching the semi-finals in Indian Wells and the championship match in Miami in March, Sinner made an impressive start to his year on clay last week with a semi-final run at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. The 21-year-old hopes to back that showing up with a deep run in Barcelona, where he reached the semi-finals on event debut in 2021. He is not concerned about his hectic recent schedule having any negative impact.

“I think it’s a good problem to have,” said Sinner. “I came here with a positive mindset. I knew that the first round was going to be a tough one, so I also tried to adapt myself to the conditions and the court. Obviously it’s very nice [with] the crowd here.”

Sinner will face Yoshihito Nishioka in the third round as he seeks his sixth quarter-final appearance in eight tour-level tournaments this year. The Japanese 16th seed Nishioka earlier defeated David Goffin 6-1, 7-5 at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899.