Tennis: Australia at the start, but Sinner immediately goes out

Jannik Sinner

put his heart into it, but it wasn't enough against Canadian

in what was the most intriguing blue match of the first day of the Australian Open: he won 3-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 6 -4, in three hours and 55 minutes, the Canadian, but the 19 year old from Sesto Pusteria left the field to applause.

Sinner, fresh from his second consecutive ATP career title won yesterday at the Great Ocean Road Open in Melbourne, succumbed to Shapovalov and who knows how it would have been if the South Tyrolean had had a day off as was granted to

, finalist yesterday in Melbourne, and not him and

, also protagonists of a final in the stadium adjacent to the one where the Spanish lost to

.

"It was a tough match for both of us - Sinner said at the press conference - Denis served better than me today and responded better than me in the important moments. Shapovalov deserved the victory. I started feeling tired after a while." But I have to learn to live with this aspect too, because if you get to play the quarterfinals or the semifinals of a big tournament you are necessarily tired. So in any case there is a lesson to learn ".

On the opening day of the first Grand Slam of 2021 - started three weeks later than the original date for the quarantine on the Melbourne Park hard courts - on the Margaret Court Arena, Sinner's streak of 10 wins in a row is therefore interrupted: in his second participation in the Australian Major (in 2020 he was beaten by Fucsovics in the second round).

The blue in the first set immediately snatches the joke from his rival, realizing the precious break up to the final 6-3.

In the second set it is Shapovalov who makes the most of the break, returning the favor with the same score.

Sinner begins to feel fatigue and with a double fault he gives the joke, before giving it up again and losing 6-2.

Another double fault cost him the break in the opening of the fourth set, but recovered with a great sixth game.

The Italian returns master of the game and closes 6-4, postponing everything to the fifth set.

Here he immediately gives up his turn, revealing a clear physical difficulty: almost on one leg he cancels a match point, but he can do nothing on the second: Shapovalov imposes himself 6-4 in the fifth set, but for Jannik there are all the cheers from the Melbourne audience.

and

immediately eliminated

, beaten respectively by the American

and the Russian

.

Tomorrow day of debut for the other 6 blues in the race:

debut against South African

,

faces French

the American

, while a qualified is

first obstacle

who finds the Swiss

on the other side of the net

;

debut against the American

, while

faces the Uruguayan

Among the good women the first for

and

.

Giorgi defeated Kazakh

6-3 6-3, in just under an hour and a quarter of the game

, while Sara Errani, promoted from qualifying, beat a comeback 2-6 6-4 6- 4, after two and a quarter hours of struggle, the Chinese

.

Tomorrow the other three

on the field:

and

.

As for the big names,

debut on velvet

: the Serbian confirms his predilection for Rod Laver Arena, beating

6-3, 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and a half of the match. In the 2nd round, the Serbian will cross the American

. The first surprise of the Australian Open comes in one of the matches that opened the program:

number 11 in the world, collected the seventh consecutive defeat in the major circuit, losing on his debut in five sets against

: Victory in comeback for

on the Spanish

, all easy for the US Open champion and finalist in Melbourne in 2020,

.

also ahead

. Among the women, forward

.