Back to business: No trouble for Jannik Sinner as he routinely cruises past Luciano Darderi into another Australian Open quarter-final

Jannik Sinner is creeping closer towards another Australian Open title after making it to a ninth consecutive major quarter-final in a very commendable 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over fellow countryman Luciano Darderi.

It is a fourth quarter-final in the tournament for the two-time champion, who is a heavy favourite to make it three on the spin. He had to come through a battle not only against a tricky opponent in the form of Eliot Spizzirri in the third round but also the intense heat of the Melbourne day. Now in the cooler evening on Margaret Court Arena, Sinner was back on song.

Sinner's serve was very good today, hitting 19 aces along with 81% first serve points won. Both players second serve was down, especially Darderi with 40%. He also failed to convert all six of his break points while Sinner took four of the eight chances he got. He hit 46 winners compared to Darderi's 33 and 16 less unforced errors than his opponent, showing off a very solid performance.

Sinner looked virtually untouchable in the opening stages of the match. The only time Darderi even got a chance to get close to the world number two was when he mustered up a brace of break points right the start of the match, which Sinner snuffed out without any fuss.

He wound find a break of his own before winning 12 of the next 15 points as he sailed into a 5-0 lead with a double break. Darderi got his first game on the board but too little too late as Sinner held to love for the set.

That first set took just 26 minutes, with Darderi managing to add an extra nine minutes onto the second set as he prolonged what seemed like the inevitable. It was 1-1 before Sinner clinched an important break, winning four points in a row from 40-15 down to the dismay of his fellow Italian. It was routine on both their serves for a while before Sinner jumped the gun and secured another break, this time right at the end of the set to complete another authoritative showing, moving one away from another quarter-final in Melbourne.

He created chances in the fourth game to go 3-1 up, but was unable to take them in the clinical form usually expected of the four-time Grand Slam champion. What he did portray later on was great resilience to fight back against a charging Darderi.

After two holds to love, the score was stuck at 4-4. The next game was critical for the match. It looked like Darderi was finally in business, going 40-15 ahead to break. He could not convert, but continued to make another two opportunities to offer him a chance to serve out the set. He failed to do this as Sinner survived a scare on serve.

Darderi's chance came and went, or it had looked like it. Two missed match points allowed Darderi to get the score back level once more. It went to a tiebreak, in which Sinner won seven points on the bounce to secure the victory. It will either be Ben Shelton or Casper Ruud in the last-eight.