COLOGNE, October 20, 2020
Italian wild card entry and reigning NextGen ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner celebrated a successful debut in Cologne on Tuesday. The 19-year-old from South Tyrol eased past Australian lucky loser James Duckworth 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round of the bett1HULKS Championship.
On the slow court inside the Lanxess Arena, Sinner saved both break points he faced and capitalized on five of his own seven break point chances to prevail after only 61 minutes.
HIGHLIGHTS‼️
Fantastic performance from @janniksin💥
The 🇮🇹 has beaten 🇦🇺 James Duckworth in 61 minutes 6-1 6-2 and will face 🇫🇷 @p2hugz in 2R.#bett1hulkschampionship | @atptour | @bett1de pic.twitter.com/w7Fl5uu7uz
— bett1_HULKS (@bett1hulks) October 20, 2020
“Not many unforced errors, I served quite well. I’m very happy about my first match,” Sinner told Markus Zocke after his win.
“I felt great on court, moving quite well. Obviously the second set there was one game when I was serving in which he pushed a little bit more the ball, so I was a little bit rushed. But I think it was a solid performance.”
The teenager will next take on French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who battled past US-American Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 16 minutes.
In other action, local favourite Oscar Otte, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser to replace Danilo Petrovic of Serbia, defeated Dennis Novak from Austria 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round in his home town for the second consecutive week.
The 27-year-old German sent down three aces and won 75 per cent of his first-service points to seal victory in one hour and three minutes. Up next for the Cologne native will be will be No. 2 seed Diego Schwartzman from Argentina.
