Advantage, Jannik Sinner?
If Wimbledon does prove to be the latest Grand Slam to build to a crescendo of another heavyweight showdown between Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the first two days of the championships have surely gone better than the world number one could have hoped.
An opening defeat for Alcaraz against Fabio Fognini would, naturally, have been Sinner’s preferred outcome, but a four-and-a-half hour, five-set epic in blistering heat was a decent consolation prize.
A day later, Sinner avoided any such titanic tussle of his own, proving far too strong and not facing a single break point in beating Luca Nardi 6-4 6-3 6-0 on No1 Court.
He will face Australian Aleksandar Vukic in the second round, a man who has managed to take just 11 games off Sinner across their two previous meetings.
It did not necessarily always look like being the opening Wimbledon cruise it turned into for Sinner. Nardi had to survive three break points in his opening service game but as nervy starts on the big stage go, this was nothing too shaky.
He held his own in the baseline exchanges and when the mistakes did come, he swiftly atoned. Nardi threw in three double faults when 4-3 down, gifting Sinner a couple of break points, only to respond with a booming ace to keep the top seed at bay.
For 45 minutes, then, the set remained in the balance, but Sinner needed just a few seconds to ensure Nardi’s efforts were in vain. With his opponent serving to extend the set, Sinner produced a stunning forehand winner down the line to bring up two set points and converted the second of them, Nardi broken to lose the set without doing much wrong.
That was a body blow and the impact was clear, Sinner needing just ten minutes of the second set to break and take a 3-0 lead at the change of ends.
There was little encouragement for Nardi on the Sinner serve, unable to even get within sight break, and it left him having to scramble desperately on his own delivery just to stay in touch.
He threw everything at one forehand from the back of the court, only to watch in disbelief as Sinner, on the run and at full stretch, dropped it back over the net. Nardi could have been forgiven for scratching his head as he trudged back to the baseline, but instead he used it to nod away a ball bounced in his direction.
A rare missed forehand from Sinner wasted the chance to bring up a set point on Nardi’s serve at 5-2, though he did not have to wait long. A hold to 15 in the following game moved Sinner a game away from victory.
Players who have beaten Sinner from two-sets down form a fairly exclusive club - Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and, somewhat more surprisingly, Karen Khachanov - and a fourth addition to that group was never on the cards.
Nardi drew the biggest cheer of the afternoon when coming out on top in a bruising rally to save the second of two break points at the start of the the third set. The reprieve, though, was brief, and Sinner had his break by the end of the game.
That was the start of a run of ten straight points for Sinner, bringing him a double break and a 3-0 lead. Minutes later it was 5-0.
Sinner was firmly in cruise control as he served for the match, so much so he hit one shot from behind the baseline through his legs. That was one of only two points he lost on serve in the third set, as he otherwise sprinted to the finish line.
