Sinner strikes late to defeat Popyrin

Jannik Sinner exploded for a break of serve late in the second set to complete a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Alexei Popyrin for a place in his debut edition of the ATP event in Doha.

The world No. 2 who trails rival Carlos Alcaraz by around 3,000 ranking points, relied on his big game to break his Australian opponent for 6-5 and finish off a game later with an unreturnable serve to reach the last eight in the Gulf.

Sinner has now won his last 12 matches at the ATP 500 level dating back to Vienna last October.

The Italian is paying for the first time since his Australian Open semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic.

He moved into a match with Jakob Mensik, winner of the January Auckland title.

Sinner also improved his success rate over players ranked outside the top 50 and he won his 50th straight against that grouping.

“I respect every player, but I always try to play my best tennis. The ranking, at the end of the day, is just a number. 

“Everyone is playing [with] high quality. Especially when the opponents don’t have much to lose, you always have to stay very focused.”

Sinner advanced with 15 winners including seven aces. “I started the match very well, not many problems with the serve,” the Italian said.

“But I lost a bit of rhythm and confidence. I had to dig deep. At 5-all he made a couple of mistakes, but I had to find a way to win the match.”