PARIS (AP) — Jannik Sinner stretched his Grand Slam winning streak to 15 matches by grabbing the last five games to complete a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Arthur Rinderknech of France in the French Open’s first round on Monday night.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner is playing in his second tournament since serving a three-month doping ban that was announced shortly after he won the Australian Open in January. His case came to light shortly before last year’s U.S. Open, which Sinner also won.
The 23-year-old Italian has three Grand Slam titles in all, each trophy arriving on hard courts, and his best showing at Roland-Garros was making it to the semifinals a year ago before losing in five sets to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
The result against the 75th-ranked Rinderknech in Court Philippe-Chatrier was Sinner’s 62nd win in a row against opponents outside the top 20.
Sinner was pretty close to perfect over the initial two sets Monday, combining for 19 winners and just eight unforced errors in that span. His level dipped a bit in the third, with nine unforced errors off his racket contributing to deficits of 4-0 and 5-2.
But Sinner righted himself from there and was on his way to a matchup against another Frenchman, 38-year-old Richard Gasquet, who has said this tournament will be the last of his career.
“I know you will support him,” Sinner told the fans with a smile, “but that’s OK.”
Rinderknech, whose best Slam appearance was reaching the third round at the 2023 U.S. Open, did his best to involve the partisan crowd, playing to the spectators and wildly celebrating his best points by sprinting around or waving his arms or shaking his head or reaching into the front row of the stands for a high-five or a handshake.
He has been to known to rile up his supporters and get under an opponent’s skin. During a loss against American Taylor Fritz at Roland-Garros two years ago, when Rinderknech was the last French man in the field, the crowd booed and whistled heartily at the end. Fritz put a finger to his lips, then spread his arms to egg on the crowd and yelled, “ Come on! I want to hear it! ”
In the lead-up to a rematch between the two at Wimbledon last year, Rinderknech made a reference to the meeting in Paris, which upset Fritz. So when the All England Club contest ended with the same winner, they got into a bit of a back-and-forth up at the net, an exchange that included Fritz telling Rinderknech to “have a nice flight home.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
