{"id":249303,"date":"2025-10-29T19:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249303\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:25:09","slug":"jannik-sinner-opens-bid-for-top-spot-with-2nd-round-paris-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249303\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner opens bid for top spot with 2nd-round Paris win"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS — Jannik Sinner<\/a>‘s bid to reclaim the No. 1 ranking got off to a good start Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Zizou Bergs<\/a> in the second round of the Paris Masters, which the Italian needs to win to knock Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> off the top spot.<\/p>\n

Sinner’s 65-week reign as No. 1 ended in September when Alcaraz won the U.S. Open final<\/a> against him for his sixth major title and the top spot. But Alcaraz lost<\/a> in Paris on Tuesday in the second round to unseeded Cameron Norrie<\/a>, opening the door for Sinner in their seesaw rivalry.<\/p>\n

Sinner had Bergs under constant pressure, forging 11 break-point chances and converting three, while not conceding a break point of his own.<\/p>\n

“I was very precise, and I also started off with a break straight away, which gives you a bit more confidence,” said Sinner, who is chasing a fifth title of the year and 23rd overall. “I’m very happy how I served today.”<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Sinner clinched victory on his first match point and plays unseeded Francisco Cerundolo<\/a> in the third round.<\/p>\n

“I felt like mostly the movement [was good],” said Sinner, who won an ATP 500 tournament in Vienna on Sunday despite having cramps.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Alexander Zverev<\/a> joined Sinner in round three by rallying from 3-1 down in the final set to beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli<\/a> 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-5.<\/p>\n

The third-seeded German made a telling difference on his second serve, winning 78% of points compared to 42% for his opponent, who dropped his serve four times. Zverev next plays 15th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, ninth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> of Canada rallied from a break down in the second set and 3-0 down in the third set tiebreaker in a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) win over Frenchman Alexandre Muller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime’s erratic performance combined 50 winners and 55 unforced errors as he he maintained his chances of reaching the season-ending, eight-player ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. He next faces unseeded Daniel Altmaier<\/a>, who beat eighth-seeded Casper Ruud<\/a> 6-3, 7-5 to end the Norwegian’s Turin chances.<\/p>\n

No. 11 Daniil Medvedev<\/a> advanced with a walkover after Grigor Dimitrov<\/a> — the 2023 tournament runner-up — pulled out of their match with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Family affair Valentin Vacherot<\/a> came out on top again in the battle of the cousins as he beat Arthur Rinderknech<\/a> 6-7 (9), 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n

“It was very physical. Mentally, it was hard, as well,” Vacherot said. “We were very tense, I think the crowd could see it.”<\/p>\n

A little more than two weeks ago, Vacherot won the Shanghai Masters final against Rinderknech, making a run from qualifying in China to win his first career tournament.<\/p>\n

The 40th-ranked Vacherot, who is from Monaco, plays Norrie next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS — Jannik Sinner‘s bid to reclaim the No. 1 ranking got off to a good start Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-249303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}