Sinner through to Australian Open 4th round after 5-set win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Jannik Sinner recovered from two sets down for the first time in his career on Friday after he beat Marton Fucsovics to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The 15th-seeded Sinner is looking to win his first Grand Slam singles title. He recovered from 2-0 down in the fourth set before clinching a 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 victory after 3 hours, 33 minutes.

“For sure the first two sets were very tough for me,” the 21-year-old Italian said. “I went on court with one tactic, then I had to change a little bit, going a little more to his backhand. We made a lot of work in the off-season physically so today I was good physically in the last few sets.”

A quarterfinalist in Melbourne a year ago, Sinner will now play either third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas or Tallon Griekspoor. Tsitsipas is the highest-ranked player left in the men’s draw following the exits of top-seeded and defending champion Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Casper Ruud.

The 24-year-old Greek player is a three-time Australian Open semifinalist and was the 2021 French Open runner-up to Novak Djokovic.

Barbora Krejcikova was the first player to advance to the fourth round after a 6-2, 6-3 win over Anhelina Kalinina to open play Friday at Rod Laver Arena.

The 20th-seeded Czech player won the first five games of the match and dominated her Ukrainian opponent. Krejcikova has not dropped a set in three matches.

“I was happy that I was able to put all of them under my belt, there were some close games,” the 2021 French Open champion said of her early lead. “From there I tried to stay aggressive.”

Later, women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek and two leading American women were also in action.

Swiatek was up against Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa while Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were olaying Marta Kostyuk and Bernarda Pera, respectively.

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