Jannik Sinner wins his first match back after Olympic heartbreak as he teams up with British star
Jannik Sinner has played his first competitive match since Wimbledon as he came through a doubles encounter with Jack Draper at the Canadian Open.
World No 1 Sinner was forced to miss the Paris Olympics due to tonsillitis, but the Italian has declared himself 100% ready for his title defence in Montreal.
“Not participating in the Olympics in Paris broke my heart, it was one of the goals of my season. Unfortunately, we have to accept that it turned out this way,” he said.
The top seed added: “Tonsillitis was tough, I took antibiotics for almost a week and didn’t touch the racket for days. When I left for Canada, I wasn’t in perfect condition, now I feel much better and stronger every day.
“I am happy to be here, where I won my first Masters 1000, I arrived early and with my team, we are preparing everything in the best way to defend the title and continue to be consistent, as we have been all year.”
With the singles main draw only getting underway later in the week, Sinner and Draper got a win under their belt as they entered the doubles tournament.
The pair defeated doubles specialists and 16th seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 10-8 in what was Draper’s first-ever doubles win at the top level. The rising British star lost his previous three doubles matches at Tour level.
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Sinner and Draper will face Ben Shelton and Alexander Bublik in the second round, but for the Italian it is good preparation ahead of his return to singles action.
The 22-year-old will face either qualifier Borna Coric or Pedro Martinez in the second round while he is projected to meet fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the quarter-final.
Sinner started the 2023 Canadian Open at No 8 in the world, but he defeated Alex de Minaur in the final to win the biggest title of his career at the time as it was his first ATP Masters trophy.
That, though, marked the start of a late-season surge and he carried that form over to the 2024 season where he won his maiden Grand Slam, the Australian Open, before rising to No 1 in the ATP Rankings after the French Open.
“It’s just a different number. Me and my team, we try to make the process, our daily routine, to make everything in the best possible way and just try to be ready for every challenge that comes up,” Sinner said.
“I’m very happy to come back here. It started off from last year semis of Wimbledon and then I came here for the first Masters event I won. I’ve been very consistent throughout one year and that’s at least what we will try to do in the next months also.”
Draper, meanwhile, lost in the second round of the Paris Games and he will start his Canadian Open singles campaign against Jordan J Thompson in the first round and if he gets through that he will face second seed Alexander Zverev.
