pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a is quickly finding that being World No. 1 comes with its own set of challenges./p
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After fighting off an ultra-aggressive a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tallon-griekspoor/gj37/overview'Tallon Griekspoor/a in a three-set first-round encounter, Sinner again found himself under siege from a free-swinging a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabian-marozsan/m0ci/overview'Fabian Marozsan/a Thursday before shaking off the Hungarian to win 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/halle/500/overview'Terra Wortmann Open/a in Halle. /p
p
Understanding that playing within themselves was not going to get the job done, Sinnerrsquo;s two opponents this week at the grass-court ATP 500 have red-lined their games. The Italian, so far, has met the challenge, but he has needed close to his best tennis at the start of his grass season to stay alive. /p
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p“It’s the first time I’ve faced him. He’s already beaten incredible players, so I knew I had to play really, really good,” Sinner said. “The first couple of matches are never easy [on a new surface]. This grass is a little different to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. Fabian is an incredible player. It was a tough match and I’m pleased to be in the quarters."/p
pA piece of inspired brilliance was the catalyst for Sinnerrsquo;s decisive break in the second game of the third set. On the first point of the game, Sinner lunged for a diving forehand short in the court, rolling 360 degrees before jumping back to his feet to hit a winning crosscourt backhand on the dead run past a dumfounded Marozsan at net./p
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pFully embracing first-strike tennis, Marozsan pressured Sinner’s second serve throughout the match, restricting the Italian to just 51 per cent of second-serve points won. Having won just 42 per cent of second-serve points in the first round against Griekspoor, Sinner said that changes may be coming./p
p“For sure I need to think about changing it up a little more. I may need to be more aggressive,” Sinner said. “I’ll need to talk to my team about that. He returned very well, especially in the beginning.”/p
p
Sinner, who is spending his second week atop the PIF ATP Rankings, is chasing his first grass-court title this week. He improved to 35-3 on the season after winning his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Marozsan. He will play a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jan-lennard-struff/sl28/overview'Jan-Lennard Struff/a in Friday’s quarter-finals after the German upset World No. 11 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefanos-tsitsipas/te51/overview'Stefanos Tsitsipas/a 6-4, 6-4./p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"S1NNER strikes back! ????????brbrPushed all the way, world No.1 a href="https://twitter.com/janniksin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@janniksin/a edges Marozsan 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 ???? QFs!a href="https://twitter.com/ATPHalle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ATPHalle/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerraWortmannOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#TerraWortmannOpen/a a href="https://t.co/vucaaqnH14"pic.twitter.com/vucaaqnH14/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1803795841519370663?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"June 20, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p
Marozsan, who came into the match with a 4-3 record against Top 10 players having beaten a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/holger-rune/r0dg/overview'Holger Rune/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a in Miami in March, was looking to reach his fourth tour-level quarter-final./p
p
Earlier in the day, fifth seed and 2022 champion a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hubert-hurkacz/hb71/overview'Hubert Hurkacz/a, dropped 17 aces on Australian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/james-duckworth/d994/overview'James Duckworth/a to advance to the quarter-finals with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win. The Pole won 39 of 42 first-serve points according to Infosys ATP Stats./p
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