Jannik Sinner extends indoor streak in Paris: Cruises past Bergs to advance to third round

Jannik Sinner returns to the courts with a victory at the Paris Masters, defeating the Belgian Zizou Bergs (No. 44) 6-4, 6-2. The Italian played his first match after winning the title at the Vienna Open last week, and overcame initial doubts to secure the victory.

The World No. 2 reaches 90 victories in Masters 1000 tournaments and his 49th win of the season, in which he already has four titles. The Italian is preparing to face the third round this Thursday against the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo.

From the start, we saw a tight match, where Bergs began serving and the first game quickly turned into a 20-point battle, which ended with the break in favor of Sinner. The Italian went ahead 2-0 with a good service game and took control of the match from the beginning.

Bergs managed to consolidate his serve and show more consistency in the following minutes. The Belgian overcame a couple of break points in the third game and improved his first serves from there, keeping pace with Sinner game by game with 15 winners for the Belgian and 17 for Sinner, who ended up taking the set with his serve 6-4.

The 4-time major champion maintained the rhythm in the second set – winning 70% of service points against only 48% for his opponent. Similar to the first set, Sinner took the lead with an opening break and managed to maintain the pace with his serve without facing any trouble. The Italian did not face any break point throughout the set.

Towards the 5th game, Sinner got the double break, and it was only a matter of time before closing the victory. Without major issues, Sinner ended up taking the win 6-4, 6-2 after one hour and 29 minutes. Sinner advances to the third round, where he will face the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo – who comes from defeating the Serb Miomir Kecmanović in a third-set tie-break.

Jannik Sinner reached 22 consecutive indoor hardcourt wins and is positioned as the main favorite for the Paris Masters title. Following Carlos Alcaraz's defeat in his debut against Cameron Norrie, the possibility is further opened for Sinner, who has played 8 finals this season – with 4 titles and 4 runner-up finishes, with all the defeats in finals being against Alcaraz.

The Italian has the chance to return to World No. 1 by the end of the week if he manages to win the Paris Masters title. Alcaraz's exit left Sinner just 840 points behind in the ranking, meaning that if he lifts the trophy and secures the 1,000 points, Sinner would return to World No. 1 after 8 weeks since Alcaraz overtook him.