Sinner overcomes hip discomfort to advance

Jannik Sinner battled through an existing hip injury and a modest serving performance to fight his way into the fourth round of the Mutua Madrid open Monday night.

Playing World No. 72 Pavel Kotov, Sinner stretched out his hip several times during the match and appeared in discomfort during his 6-2, 7-5 win, saving a set point before breaking serve at 4-5 in the second set to avoid playing a decider.

"I have been struggling a little bit with my right hip," Sinner said during his on-court interview. "We're trying to find a solution and I don't think it's anything serious. Sometimes I feel it more like today and some days are a little bit better.

"I have a good team behind me and we'll try to get my body going for tomorrow and we'll decide tomorrow what's best for me and what's best for the body."

Sinner claimed four consecutive service breaks to run away with the first set despite surrendering his own serve twice in a row early in the set. Although he dropped an early service game in the second, Sinner improved his first-serve winning percentage from 64 per cent to 74 per cent between sets, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“I have played two matches now with the roof closed and the feeling with the ball was better than with the first match. It was still a very complicated match,” Sinner said of his first-time Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with the 25-year-old Kotov.

Sinner will next play 16th seed Karen Khachanov, who defeated 21-year-old Italian Flavio Cobolli 7-5, 6-4. Khachanov hit just nine winners but his 14 unforced errors to Cobolli’s 32 told the story of the match.

Khachanov has lost his past three matches against Sinner, including in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open, but they have never met on clay. “I had some pain last week so I didn’t play in Barcelona,” Khachanov said. “But with every match I win I find confidence and rhythm.

“Jannik is in the best form at the moment and he’s only lost a couple of matches since late last year. [But] there’s nothing to be scared of. I just need to prepare and find a good game plan and the weapons I need to beat him.”

Sinner is No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings and would pull within 375 points of Novak Djokovic with a title in Madrid.