Sinner eases past Nardi to advance

LONDON: Top seed Jannik Sinner eased into the Wimbledon second round on Tuesday, brushing aside fellow Italian Luca Nardi in straight sets.

Unfazed by the searing heat, Sinner barely broke sweat in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 victory lasting just one hour and 48 minutes on Court One.

"I'm very happy to come back here to such a special place for me," Sinner said.

"Playing an Italian is very unfortunate, but one has to go through and luckily it was me."

Sinner last week insisted his surprise decision to part with two of his coaching staff on the eve of Wimbledon would not affect his bid to win the tournament for the first time.

He opted to move on from Marco Panichi and Ulises Badio, his trainer and physiotherapist, as he looks for a new direction following his painful French Open final loss to Carlos Alcaraz.

Sinner has won three of the past six Grand Slams, but the 23-year-old blew a two-set lead and wasted three match points as Alcaraz staged a comeback for the ages to win the French Open final.

Sinner has failed to reach the Wimbledon final in his four visits, with a last-four appearance in 2023 ranking as his best effort.

Third-ranked Jessica exits in first round

Third-ranked Jessica Pegula thought she was done with first-round hiccups.

Then she faced Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who needed just 58 minutes to stun the American 6-2, 6-3 at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

It was the third-seeded Pegula's earliest exit at a Grand Slam tournament in five years.

And it came days after Pegula won the grass-court Bad Homburg Open in Germany on Saturday, beating Iga Swiatek in straight sets.

“This is definitely probably the worst result I've had all year," she said.

Pegula, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon in 2023, hit only five winners and made 24 unforced errors.