Sinner not feeling the pressure after victorious China Open start

World No. 2 and top seed Jannik Sinner defeated World No. 97 Marin Cilic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the 2025 China Open on Thursday, Sept. 25, on the Diamond Court. With the largest crowd of the tournament so far, the former World No. 1 looked dominant from start to finish.

Sinner was nearly flawless on serve in the opening set, dropping just six total points across his four service games. After Cilic leveled the set at 2-2, Sinner won four straight games, breaking twice with ease. The pivotal seventh game was less about Sinner’s brilliance and more about Cilic’s miscues. The Croatian committed three consecutive unforced errors to hand Sinner a break point, which he converted with a forehand winner before serving the set out, 6-2.

The second set followed a similar pattern. After each player held serve, Sinner surged ahead by winning the next four games. In the third game, Cilic unraveled with four straight unforced errors, gifting Sinner a simple break. Another came in the fifth game, when a double fault at deuce opened the door for Sinner, who closed the game with another forehand winner. Cilic held serve in the seventh game after two deuces, but Sinner finished the job in the eighth, sealing the 6-2 set. 

Sinner’s serve improved steadily throughout the match. Early on, he struggled to hit his spots, relying more heavily on his second serve. However, as the match went on, his placement sharpened, allowing him to dictate points and apply pressure on Cilic’s return. His only test came in the final game, when he faced a lone break point. He saved it confidently with an ace down the tee before closing out the match.

For Cilic, the loss marked a sixth straight defeat since his Wimbledon run over the summer, where he upset No. 4 seed Jack Draper in the second round and advanced to the round of 16. Despite the slump, Sinner praised the 36-year-old Grand Slam champion in his post-match press conference saying: “His peak is very, very high. I practiced with him in New York, actually, so it was quite recent. Big, big respect to him.”

Sinner recently lost his World No. 1 ranking to Carlos Alcaraz after falling short in the U.S. Open final. Asked after Thursday’s match whether dropping back to No. 2 relieved some of the pressure on himself, Sinner downplayed the idea: “No, I don’t think it’s pressure off or on. I’m very, very happy with the season I have played or am playing because it was remarkable from my side, what I did.”

Sinner now advances to the second round, where he will face qualifier Terence Atmane on Saturday. The two recently met for the first time in the Cincinnati Open semifinals, where Atmane stunned the field with a breakout run, defeating No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz and No. 7 seed Holger Rune along the way.

— Reporting by Connor Greene