Sinner beats Michelsen to seal round 16 win

Jannik Sinner improves to 25-2 on hard courts this year at the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday afternoon.

The 22-year-old top ranked player saved eight break points to defeat American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 7-5 on centre court in his first match on American soil this season.

“It was a tough match. He played already some matches but for me it was the first match here, so I tried to feel the conditions a but more,” he said post-match. “I’m very happy to be in the next round. For me this is a place where I used to struggle a lot in the past years, so let’s see what I can do this time.

“I’m trying to stay in a positive mindset, positive moment, and I think that today also brought me the win.”

Sinner who reached the quarter finals stage at all five previous ATP Masters 1000s he has played this season will next meet Sebastian Baez or Jordan Thompson for a place in the last eight.

Elsewhere, Stefanos Tsitsipas fought from a set down to get his North American hard-court summer moving on Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory against Jan-Lennard Struff. The Greek’s second-round clash will be against Jack Draper or qualifier Jaume Munar.

Felix Auger-Aliassime also bounced back from an early exit in Montreal after a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Aleksandar Kovacevic. Auger-Aliassime’s next opponent will be seventh seed Casper Ruud.

World No. 16 Holger Rune was forced to rally for his second-round spot. He defeated Matteo Berrettini 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 and will next meet qualifier Nuno Borges, who defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 36, 6-1 for a spot in the quarter finals.