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Jannik Sinner and Alex de Minaur booked their spots in third round of the Barcelona Open, an ATP500 event, with straight-sets wins on Wednesday.
World No.8 Sinner defeated Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 40 minutes to lead the head-to-head record 3-0.
The Italian has a win-loss record of 25-6 this season which includes a title in Montpellier along with runner-up finishes in Rotterdam and Miami. He also reached the semifinals in Indian Wells and last week’s Masters event in Monte Carlo.
“I think I started very well, especially in return games,” Sinner told atptour.com after the win while adding, “I tried to stay quite aggressive, made a couple of unforced errors, but I have to remind myself that this is the first round for me. I tried to stay calm and obviously try in the best way in important moments.
Fourth-seeded Sinner will face Yoshihito Nishioka next for a place in the quarterfinals. Nishioka, the 16th seed from Japan, knocked out Belgian David Goffin 6-1, 7-5 in the second round.
Eighth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur brushed aside Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-1 in just 62 minutes to set up a third-round clash with Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Ecuador’s Emilio Gomez 6-3, 6-1.
Later in the day, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas begins his campaign against Argentina’s Pedro Cachin with the winner set to face Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the third round.
Shapovalov won his second-round match 6-4, 6-3 against Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik. Seventh-seeded Briton Cameron Norrie defeated Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-1, 6-2.
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