Jannik Sinner, the top-ranked player, successfully defended his National Bank Open title with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win over Borna Coric in the second round on Thursday. Sinner’s victory comes after a challenging period, as he missed the Olympics due to tonsillitis following his quarterfinal loss to Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon. However, he bounced back to win his first Grand Slam title in January by defeating Medvedev in the Australian Open final.
“I’m very happy and excited to be back on court,” said Sinner. “It was a tough match, but I served well in important moments and returned well in the games when I broke him. So, a very positive start.”
Meanwhile, second-seeded Alexander Zverev continued his dominant form, securing his 48th match win of the year with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory over Jordan Thompson.
Unfortunately, the night session was canceled due to rain. This led to the postponement of several matches, including the highly anticipated all-American clash between Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda. The match between fourth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz and Thanasi Kokkinakis was also interrupted, with Arthur Rinderknech leading Flavio Cobolli in the fourth game.
Earlier in the day, the tournament witnessed significant upsets as the top-seeded players, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, were eliminated in the second round. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina outplayed Medvedev 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, while Kei Nishikori triumphed over Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4. Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, struggled with unforced errors, committing 17 and winning only 32% of his second-serve points.
Other notable second-round victories included Andrey Rublev, the fifth seed, who beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (3), 6-2, and sixth-seeded Casper Ruud, who edged past James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
