Australian Open | Sinner beats the heat, not Monfils

The defending champion at the Australian Open Jannik Sinner is on the threshold of the last four: by beating the Dane Holger Rune (13^e) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday, the 23-year-old Italian qualified for his 10^e Grand Slam quarter-final.

But the game was not a walk in the park for Sinner. In addition to the loss of a round, the world No.1 seemed to suffer from the more than 30°C in Melbourne.

“I think we saw that I wasn’t feeling well […] I felt a little dizzy at certain moments,” admitted the Italian.

In the next round, he will face the last Australian in the men’s draw Alex De Minaur (8^e) or the American Alex Michelsen (42^e).

Sinner will not be the only Italian present in the quarter-finals. His compatriot Lorenzo Sonego (55^e) put an end to the saga of young American talent Learner Tien (19 years old, 121^e) 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

Sonego will face the American Ben Shelton (20) in the next round.^e), winner after abandonment of Frenchman Gaël Monfils (41^e).

“Today was really difficult for me physically. I was already very close to the limit and I unfortunately crossed it,” underlined Monfils, dulled by his long tour in Oceania.

With the first three sets coming to a tiebreaker, the 38-year-old French veteran headed to the net smiling at 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/2), 1-0 for Shelton, indicating that he was stopping the fight after almost three hours of battle and eight victories in a row.

Finally, the day after the boycott of the traditional post-match interview by Novak Djokovic, due to comments deemed “insulting” by the Serb from a journalist, the former world No.1 “moves on”, the tournament organizers also assured.

As requested by Djokovic, the Australian journalist who made fun of the Serbian star and his supporters publicly presented his “apologies”.