Sinner Surges Past Schwartzman In Barcelona

Consistency personified so far this season, Jannik Sinner held his nerve to down Diego Schwartzman on Wednesday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell for his 25th tour-level win of 2023.

The fourth-seeded Italian outlasted a typically resilient Schwartzman, who dug particularly deep in a topsy-turvy second set, on Pista Rafa Nadal. After dominating the opening set, Sinner clinched four of the seven breaks of serve in the second to wrap a one-hour, 40-minute victory in the second-round clash at the ATP 500.

“I think I started very well, especially in return games,” said Sinner. “I tried to stay quite aggressive, made a couple of unforced errors, but I have to remind myself that this is the first round for me. I tried to stay calm and obviously try in the best way in important moments.

“Now the main focus is to recover for tomorrow, and I restart tomorrow hopefully with better feelings than today. Diego is a very tough player to play against and I am very happy.”

After reaching the semi-finals in Indian Wells and the championship match in Miami in March, Sinner made an impressive start to his year on clay last week with a semi-final run at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. The 21-year-old hopes to back that showing up with a deep run in Barcelona, where he reached the semi-finals on event debut in 2021. He is not concerned about his hectic recent schedule having any negative impact.

“I think it’s a good problem to have,” said Sinner. “I came here with a positive mindset. I knew that the first round was going to be a tough one, so I also tried to adapt myself to the conditions and the court. Obviously it’s very nice [with] the crowd here.”

Sinner will face Yoshihito Nishioka in the third round as he seeks his sixth quarter-final appearance in eight tour-level tournaments this year. The Japanese 16th seed Nishioka earlier defeated David Goffin 6-1, 7-5.

In the opening match of the day on Pista Rafa Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov was a 6-3, 6-1 winner against Emilio Gomez. The Bulgarian delivered a commanding display against the World No. 120 Gomez, whose father, Andres, won the Barcelona title in 1989 and 1990.

Dimitrov, whose best result this season is a semi-final run in Rotterdam, converted five of his six break points to improve to 10-7 for the 2023 season.

Alex de Minaur will be Dimitrov’s third-round opponent at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899. The Australian, who partially grew up and still regularly trains just along the coast in Alicante, routed Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-1 to reach the third round for the third time in three appearances in Barcelona.

Two other seeded players, Karen Khachanov and Francisco Cerundolo, also advanced to the third round. The sixth-seeded Khachanov, semi-finalist at the Australian Open and in Miami, defeated Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 6-4. He next takes on 12th seed Daniel Evans or qualifier Matteo Arnaldi.

Argentina’s Cerundolo needed just 72 minutes to dispatch Francesco Passaro 6-2, 6-2. The 15th seed will play third seed Casper Ruud in the third round.