Australian Open: Slick Jannik Sinner sails into last 16

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Jannik Sinner made light work of Marcos Giron to progress to the fourth round of the Australian Open. Sinner, the reigning champion in Melbourne, overcame Giron 6-3 6-4 6-2 in just over two hours on Saturday.

The Italian broke Giron early in the opening set, though he had to fend off a break point before then nosing himself ahead. A decisive break followed midway through the second, but Giron offered some resistance in the final set, breaking to draw level at 2-2.

Sinner, though, offered up little else to his American opponent, and duly served out the victory at the first time of asking.

"Every match has its own difficulties. It felt like he was very solid from the back of the court," Sinner said in his on-court interview. I still have room to improve, but every win is great.

"If I want to go on in this tournament, I have to improve. Hopefully, in the next round, I'll raise my level, but I'm still very happy."

Data Debrief: Sinner surpasses Seppi

World number one Sinner has now claimed 64 match wins at the majors, which moves him clear of Andreas Seppi (63) for the outright second most of any Italian in the Open Era, behind only Fabio Fognini (71).

He has tallied up 17 straight match victories at the hard-court grand slams (Australian Open, US Open), which matches the run women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka is on.

It means two players are on an ongoing run of at least 17 consecutive hard-court wins at the majors for the fourth time in the Open Era, after Steffi Graf and Pete Sampras (1994), Kim Clijsters and Novak Djokovic (2012) and Naomi Osaka and Djokovic (2019).