Sinner debut: there is Sousa, defeated by Seppi at Wimbledon. Previous

On the night between Monday and Tuesday, Jannik Sinner will make his debut at the Australian Open 2022. The South Tyrolean will take the field against the Portuguese Joao Sousa in the second match on the Kia Arena, after the match between Robin Anderson and Samantha Stosur, match of the women’s draw which will start at 1 Italian. Who will have the best between Sinner and Sousa will face the winner of the match between Steve Johnson and Jordan Thompson.

The moment

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Sinner is the 11th seed on the Australian Open draw. Riccardo Piatti’s pupil is in his third participation in the Melbourne slam: in 2020 he won against Max Purcell before the defeat against Marton Fucsovics, while last year the Italian lost against Denis Shapovalov in five sets, in a first round of absolute level. Sinner started the year well: three out of three wins in the ATP Cup singles matches (against Purcell, Rinderknech and Safiullin). Joao Sousa, on the other hand, is number 140 in the world and entered the main draw of the Australian Open as a lucky loser: the Portuguese was rescued after losing to Radu Albot in the decisive match. Before this tournament, the 32-year-old played only one match this season, in qualifying for the 250 in Melbourne: defeat to Maxime Cressy in two sets.

The numbers

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For Sousa this is the ninth participation in the Australian Open: the best result is the third round, achieved three times in his career in the tournament (2015, 2016 and 2019). The last game played by the Portuguese in the Australian slam is the one against Federico Delbonis in the first round two years ago. For the first time in his career, Sousa will challenge Sinner: no precedent between the two, the prediction is clearly all on Jannik’s side. The Portuguese recently played against an Italian tennis player in the first round of a Major: at Wimbledon, with Andreas Seppi’s victory in four sets. The career balance against players from our country, considering only the major circuit, is 11 wins and 10 defeats.