Sinner survives Spizzirri and the heat and saves his place in the round of 16 in Australia

The Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner has managed to advance to the round of 16 of the Australian Open, the first ‘Grand Slam’ of the season and in which he defends his crown, after suffering to defeat the American Eliot Spizzirri (4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4) in a match in which he suffered cramps and regained strength after the chair umpire ordered the roof to be closed, while the Serbian Novak Djokovic has reached 400 victories in ‘big’ by beating the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp (6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4)).

The number two in the world, who in the round of 16 will face his compatriot Luciano Darderi, went through an ordeal at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, besieged by a blazing sun in the middle of the day and in which the players suffered from the high temperatures that were on the verge of leaving the current champion out of competition.

Sinner led 4-2 in the opening set, but saw the American win five consecutive games to take the set, breaking a streak of 27 consecutive sets won by the Italian, and start the second with a break. He stopped the bleeding with a ‘break’ and reacted to lead 4-1 and later tie the game, but his suffering was not over.

Spizzirri took a 3-1 lead in the third set while Sinner suffered from cramps. It was then that Sinner asked the chair umpire to close the roof of the center court, and he complied with his request, complying with the extreme heat protocol of the Australian Open, governed by parameters such as air temperature, radiation, humidity and wind speed.

That was a respite for the defending champion, who with two breaks, already under the shadows, took the third set. Although they started 3-1 down again in the fourth, they won four games in a row and were able to close the contest after three hours and 42 minutes of fighting. With this, he moves on to the second week of the ‘big’ ocean tournament and meets the Italian Luciano Darderi, who defeated the Russian Karen Khachanov (7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4).

Sinner aspires to conquer Australia for the third consecutive time – after winning the tournament in 2024 and 2025 -, something that only the Serbian Novak Djokovic has achieved, who has accumulated ten titles in Melbourne. In addition, he would become the fifth man capable of winning three trophies there, after Djokovic himself (10), Roger Federer (6), Andre Agassi (4) and Mats Wilander (3).

Also advancing to the next round, although with much less trouble, was Novak Djokovic, who reached 400 wins in ‘Grand Slams’ and equaled the record of victories of the Swiss Roger Federer in the tournament (102) by defeating the Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp this Saturday (6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4)) in two hours and 44 minutes.

All in a match in which the Serbian risked disqualification, as already happened in the 2020 US Open; In the second set, 4-2 up and after letting a 3-0 lead slip away, Djokovic angrily hit a ball that almost hit the ball girl.

With his victory, he advances to the second week of a ‘great’ for the 70th time, surpassing the 69 times that Federer achieved it, and is, at 38 years and 255 days, the oldest tennis player to go this far in the Australian Open since 1988. Now, he will face the winner of the duel between the Czech Jakub Mensik and the American Ethan Quinn.