ATP Tour

Sinner avoids second-round drama, sinks Borges at Wimbledon

It was perhaps imperfect, but Jannik Sinner took a far more straightforward step towards his Wimbledon title defence on Wednesday afternoon at the grass-court major.

Having rallied to a five-set victory in his opening match against Miomir Kecmanovic at The All England Club, the 2025 champion Sinner notched a 7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-4 second-round triumph against Nuno Borges on Centre Court. Sinner raised his level at key moments, including when Borges served for the second set at 5-4, to complete a straight-sets win and book a third-round meeting with Jenson Brooksby.

“The first set was very tough, but in the first set we were [both] serving very well so there were not a lot of long exchanges,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “Overall, in these kinds of matches where you don’t have a lot of control, I’m very happy to win. Especially on this surface, I now have two wins [this week].

“Of course we will see what’s coming, but I’m very happy about the result. A couple of things we need to improve, but I’m very happy.”

With his two-hour, 32-minute victory against Borges, the 24-year-old Sinner ticked his tally of main-draw match wins at Grand Slams to 95 and moved past Nicola Pietrangeli for the most by an Italian player. The No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner is this fortnight bidding to become the 10th man in the Open Era to retain the Wimbledon title, just two years after his great Lexus ATP Head2Head rival Carlos Alcaraz joined that list.

After gritting his way to the win against Kecmanovic, Sinner delivered a significantly more consistent performance against the Portuguese World No. 48 Borges. The Italian struck 47 winners to 30 unforced errors, and crucially broke twice early in the third set — even if he produced a sloppy game to hand Borges a break of his own in between.

“Especially in the first round, I felt the lack of matches,” Sinner, who for the first time did not play an ATP Tour event on grass in the leadup to Wimbledon. “Also today there were a couple of moments. I need to get back to this rhythm. If we look at the scoreboard, it was very close, so these matches, and especially the individual sets, help me a lot.

“Of course, we aim to improve and aim to get a little bit better. Tomorrow is a day off. Yesterday I didn’t do a lot because the first match was five sets and very long, so I’m happy about today.”

Brooksby earlier eased past 31st seed Ignacio Buse to secure his third-round spot. The 25-year-old American will now seek revenge against Sinner in their second tour-level meeting, with the Italian having prevailed in straight sets in the previous one in Washington in 2021.

Sinner’s fellow Top-10 star Daniil Medvedev also booked his third-round berth on Wednesday. World No. 9 Medvedev rallied past Daniel Merida 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 to improve to 6-2 on grass for the year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. A former Wimbledon semi-finalist, Medvedev next plays 28th seed Brandon Nakashima or Jan-Lennard Struff.

Tommy Paul, who arrived at Wimbledon in good grass-court form after reaching the Queen’s Club final, maintained his solid start at SW19 with a 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 triumph against Soonwoo Kwon. Paul will next take on Hubert Hurkacz, who sank Sebastian Ofner 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-4. Another American, Halle champion Frances Tiafoe completed a 7-6(6), 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win against Terence Atmane in a first-round match that was suspended on Tuesday evening due to darkness. Tiafoe plays home hope Jan Choinski next.

Flavio Cobolli also sealed victory in a first-round clash that began on Tuesday. The Roland Garros finalist overcame Mariano Navone 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-6(8) and will play James Duckworth for a third-round spot.