By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner saved 11 set points in the second set before beating wasteful American Mackenzie McDonald 6-3 7-6 6-3 on Saturday to reach the fourth round at the French Open.
Sinner had his back to the wall at 5-2 down in the second set but kept his composure as the world number 60 squandered chance after chance to clinch it.
“Both of us were not felling well on court but very happy to be through,” Sinner said.
“I don’t feel 100 percent that’s for sure,” added Sinner, who played with his left knee strapped. “I don’t want to talk about it. But I served well, and I broke him early in the third set.”
Sinner broke the American once midway through the first set to go into the lead. The world number 12 then carved out three break opportunities in a marathon fifth game of the second set that lasted almost 15 minutes but McDonald fought back to win it.
It was the American who then earned two straight breaks to go 5-2 up but then spectacularly imploded when he squandered 11 set points to allow Sinner, who himself littered the court with 40 unforced errors in the opening two sets alone, to clinch the tiebreak in a set that lasted an hour and a half.
There was no coming back for the American as Sinner then raced to a 3-0 lead and clinched the match when his opponent sailed a forehand long, to set up a fourth round encounter with the winner of the match between Russian Andrey Rublev and Chile’s Cristian Garin.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
