Jannik Sinner cruises in Indian Wells opener, winning streak now up to 16 matches in a row

World No. 3 Jannik Sinner has made a winning start to his Indian Wells campaign—and his quest for the No. 2 ranking—with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Masters 1000 event.

“It was a little bit breezy today so a little bit tough to play, especially in the beginning and in my first match here,” Sinner said after the one-hour, 20-minute victory. “But I can be very happy, because he’s a great opponent, a great player. In the beginning you always try to get a feel for the court, and after I did I felt much better.”

The Italian is now a perfect 13-0 on the season, and his overall winning streak is up to 16 matches in a row. He won his last three matches of 2023 at the Davis Cup Finals, and so far this year he’s gone 7-0 en route to the Australian Open title, 5-0 en route to the Rotterdam title and now 1-0 so far at Indian Wells.

His winning streak has now spanned four countries (Spain, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States) and three continents (Europe, Australia, back to Europe and now North America).

And after such a strong start to 2024—and so many incredible achievements over the last six months—he's still looking to improve.

“You can always set goal after goal,” the 22-year-old Italian said in his on-court interview. “When you reach one goal, you work hard to reach the next goal. And I have to improve many things.”

Sinner is in a three-man race for the No. 2 ranking at Indian Wells along with Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.

Friday’s match actually looked like it might be close in the early goings, with the two staying on serve through 3-all in the first set—and Sinner even having to fight off a break point serving at 2-all.

But from 3-all it was a Sinner steamrolling, as the Italian won the last nine games in a row. He dropped a total of six points in the last seven games, and only five points in the entire second set.

And his match stats backed that domination up, as he finished with three times as many winners as unforced errors, 21 to 7.

Awaiting the No. 3-seeded Sinner in the third round will be No. 25 seed Jan-Lennard Struff or an unseeded Borna Coric, who play each other in the last match on Stadium 7 later tonight.