Rome, May 13 (UNI) World number one Jannik Sinner kept up his winning return to tennis as a 6-4 6-2 victory over Jesper de Jong carried him through to the last 16 of the Italian Open.
Home favourite Sinner, who returned from a three-month doping ban with a win over Mariano Navone on Saturday, battled past Dutchman De Jong to set up what should prove a trickier match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo.
Following his victory over De Jong, the 23-year-old Sinner said the reaction from the Italian crowd was the best he had ever experienced, and those in attendance in Rome were in equally supportive voice on Monday.
Sinner raced to a 4-1 lead in the opening set but showed signs of rustiness as he gave back the three-game advantage against De Jong, who is at a career-high 93rd in the world rankings.
Italy's reigning US Open and Australian Open champion ultimately recovered to close out the set before dominating the second to claim a 23rd consecutive win.
It is a streak that has been interrupted by the three-month suspension he agreed with the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada).
Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel after testing positive for the banned substance clostebol in March 2024, before Wada negotiated a short suspension with the Italian's legal team after agreeing there was no intention to cheat and contamination was the cause.
Victory against De Jong maintained Sinner's bid to end a 49-year wait for an Italian winner of the men's tournament in Rome. Adriano Panatta, with his title run in 1976, was the last home champion.
How Sinner copes with his next opponent is likely to provide a firm indication of where his form is at.
Cerundolo, the 17th seed, knocked Sinner out of the tournament at the last-16 stage in 2023 and has reached the semi-finals in Munich and Madrid at his last two events.
"He's an amazing player, he has an amazing season until now," Sinner said.
"It's going to be tough. For sure I have to raise my level. It's going to be a good challenge, a good
test for me and we'll see how it goes."
Sinner's compatriot Matteo Berrettini followed him onto the tournament's centre court but was trailing sixth seed Casper Ruud 7-5 2-0 before retiring with injury.
UNI BM