MELBOURNE, Australia — After wasting a set point in the second tiebreaker with an ill-conceived drop shot, Jannik Sinner regained focus quickly Monday and began his Australian Open title defense with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Nicolas Jarry.
After all the pre-tournament attention on the 2024 doping cases of Sinner and longtime women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek, both started the year’s first Grand Slam tournament about the same time on nearby courts on Day 2.
Top-ranked Sinner had to grind for two long, tiebreak sets against No. 35-ranked Jarry, a 29-year-old from Chile, before hitting his stride in the third with two service breaks on Rod Laver Arena.
Sinner has won 14 of his last 16 tiebreaks; he’s the second top-seeded man in the Open Era to play a tiebreak in each of his first two sets of a major, joining Rafael Nadal (2010 US Open vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili).
“It was a very close one because the first sets, they can go both ways,” Sinner said after extending his winning streak to 16 matches dating back to October, including 14 consecutive straight-set victories. “In the third set when I broke it the first time, that gave me a little bit of room to breathe.
“I’m happy how I handled the very tough situation.”
Sinner has got a good record at Melbourne Park in that department. He rallied from two sets down in last year’s final to beat Daniil Medvedev for his first Grand Slam title, coming off a semifinal upset of 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.
Monday marked Sinner’s 15th consecutive major win on hard courts as he became the fourth man since 2000 to win that many Grand Slam hard-court matches in a row, joining Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Djokovic.
The Italian has won 29 consecutive sets dating back to the third round of the Shanghai Masters in October.
He will next face either Japan’s Taro Daniel or local wild card Tristan Schoolkate for a place in the third round.
After a stop-start Day 1 on Sunday, including more than six hours of rain, Monday’s packed program was also set to feature matches for Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.