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SPORTS Tuesday 21 January 2025

Madison Keys of the U.S. plays a backhand return to Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan during their
fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday,
Jan. 20, 2025.
Associated Press
Jannik Sinner gets past Holger Rune at

the Australian Open in a match with

net and medical delays

By HOWARD FENDRICH the face looked a little bit better, the color
AP Tennis Writer was a little bit back.”
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — First came He’s won 18 consecutive tour-level match-
the medical timeouts, one each for Jan- es, dating back to late 2024. Last season,
nik Sinner and Holger Rune with the tem- Sinner went 73-6 with eight titles, the first
perature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 man with that many tournament champi-
Celsius) at the Australian Open. onships in a single year since Andy Murray
Then came the bizarre sight of a 20-min- in 2016.
ute delay because the net at Rod Laver That haul included Sinner’s first two Grand
Arena detached from the court after be- Slam trophies, at the Australian Open in
ing hit by a big Sinner serve. January and the U.S. Open in September,
In the end, the breaks in action were the latter shortly after he was exonerated
“lucky,” Sinner said, because they gave for testing positive for an anabolic steroid
him a chance to catch his breath, put his twice in March. His case is still unresolved,
struggles aside and emerge with the vic- though, with a hearing scheduled for April
tory as he keeps doing, no matter the site in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal
or the circumstances. of the ruling.
The defending champion moved into the In the women’s fourth round, 2017 U.S.
quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Mon- Open runner-up Madison Keys eliminated
day by eliminating the 13th-seeded Rune 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybaki-
6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. na 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, and now plays Elina Svi-
“I don’t want to talk so much (about) how tolina, a 6-4, 6-1 winner against Veronika
I felt today. I was not feeling really well. I Kudermetova. Five-time major champion
think we saw that today. I was struggling Iga Swiatek had no surprise here an easy
physically,” Sinner said, declining to say ex- time beating “lucky loser” Eva Lys 6-1, 6-0
actly what was wrong. “Playing against a in just 59 minutes.
tough opponent, but also playing against Swiatek, who will face No. 8 Emma Navar-
myself a little bit.” ro next, compiled a 28-7 edge in winners
The No. 1-ranked Sinner occasionally tried and has ceded a grand total of 11 games
to cool off by pressing a cold towel to his through four matches in the tournament.
face or pouring water down the back Contrast that to Navarro’s path: Her 6-4,
of his neck. He was far better down the 5-7, 7-5 win against No. 9 Daria Kasatkina
stretch, both after a 10-minute-plus delay was the American’s fourth three-setter
in the third set when he went to the locker in four matches in Melbourne, and she
room for medical attention and after a has dropped more than 60 games while
20-minute holdup in the fourth when the spending more than 10 hours on court.
screw connecting the net to the blue play- Sinner will play No. 8 Alex de Minaur of
ing surface came undone. Australia, who defeated unseeded Alex
“It was a bit helpful. I at least felt slightly Michelsen of the U.S. 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at
better when I went back on court,” Sin- night to reach the quarterfinals at his home
ner said about seeing a doctor. “I felt like Grand Slam tournament for the first time.q