Sinner opens ATP Finals title bid by easing past De Minaur

TURIN: Jannik Sinner got his bid for a first ATP Finals title underway with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Alex de Minaur on Sunday as former champion Daniil Medvedev lost his head during his defeat to Taylor Fritz.

Italian Sinner delighted supporters in Turin with a comfortable win over Finals debutant De Minaur to move first in the Ilie Nastase Group. The world number one, who hadn´t played since winning the Shanghai Masters last month, only had one brief scare when his serve was broken early in the first set.

But he quickly recovered to rattle off four straight games and take the opening set to 5-2 before closing it out with his first set point. Sinner closed out a routine victory in emphatic fashion with a perfect service game and basked in the applause of his home fans after smashing an ace to finish in style.

“It´s a great start for my side for this event, for this tournament, considering I haven´t played for four weeks an official match. I´m glad that I managed to play this kind of level today,” Sinner told reporters.

“I had in the beginning some moments, which is normal, and then I found myself on the court... I´m very, very happy.” Sinner, who lost last year´s final to Novak Djokovic, tops the world rankings after a stunning season in which he claimed the Australian and US Opens -- his first Grand Slam victories -- and won five more ATP titles. However, he has been dogged by controversy after twice testing positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March.

He was initially cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency but at the end of September the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed, seeking a ban of up to two years. On Tuesday Sinner faces Fritz, whose 6-4, 6-3 win over Medvedev was overshadowed by his opponent boiling with rage at a sub-par performance.