The defending champion moved a step closer to retaining his crown and capturing his first ATP Masters 1000 title of the season on Wednesday in Ohio, where he overcame a resilient performance from French qualifier Adrian Mannarino<\/a> 6-4, 7-6(4) in a rain-disrupted match.<\/p>\n Sinner was not at his free-flowing best against Mannarino but had too much for the Frenchman either side of the two-hour, 45-minute rain delay that arrived at the start of the second set. In a tight opening set, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings produced a moment of magic on return at 4-2 when he tracked down a Mannarino smash before striking a backhand winner from deep in the court.<\/p>\n The Italian made just 52 per cent of his first serves in the match and struggled to find his timing from the baseline in the second set against the clean-hitting Mannarino. However, after failing to serve out the match at 6-5, the 23-year-old remained composed in the tie-break to triumph.<\/p>\n “He is a very tough opponent. Very different from other opponents, not only because he is a lefty but how he hits the ball. It is very low,” Sinner said. “I just tried to serve well and tried to see what I could do in the return games.<\/p>\n “He was serving very well, especially on the Ad side, on the wide one was very precise. I changed the position, trying to make him feel uncomfortable. I struggled a bit to close it out, but this can happen in this sport and I am very happy to be in the next round.”<\/p>\n With his one-hour, 48-minute victory, Sinner extended his winning streak on hard courts to 24 matches, surpassing Novak Djokovic<\/a>\u2019s 2015 run of 23 wins and climbing to eighth place on the list of the longest hard-court winning streaks of this century. The Italian\u2019s last defeat on the surface came against Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the Beijing final last October.<\/p>\n Sinner now leads Mannarino 4-0 in the pair\u2019s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and will next meet 23rd seed Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> or another Frenchman, Benjamin Bonzi<\/a> in his fifth quarter-final of the year. The 23-year-old has won his past 21 matches against French players.<\/p>\n Playing his first tournament since winning his first\u00a0Wimbledon<\/a> title, Sinner is 29-3 on the season, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Just eight wins away from 300 career victories, Sinner earlier in the month became the second player to qualify for November’s\u00a0Nitto ATP Finals<\/a>, joining Alcaraz.<\/p>\n Sinner and Alcaraz will compete in a thrilling battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 honours presented by PIF over the remaining months of the year. Alcaraz currently holds a 1,440-point lead over Sinner in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.<\/p>\n![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755132427_513_it-all-adds-up-banner.jpg\"\/)
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