Sinner breezes past Brooksby into fourth round

Jannik Sinner's Wimbledon title defence gathered pace on Friday as the world number one swept aside American Jenson Brooksby 6-4 6-3 6-4 ​to enter the fourth round and reinforce his status as the man to beat ‌at the All England Club.

Having been dragged into a five-set battle in his opener and forced to negotiate two tough tiebreaks in the next, the Italian looked increasingly at home on the grass of Court One and gave Brooksby ​very few opportunities to disrupt his rhythm.

"I'm very happy about the win, I'm trying to ​improve every day," said Sinner, who arrived at the All England Club without ⁠a competitive match on grass courts after his shock French Open defeat in the second round.

"A ​small step forwards today, trying to get better. If I want to go far in this ​tournament, there are a couple of things that we need to work on."

The 24-year-old got down to business with little interest in another energy-sapping encounter on a warm afternoon, grabbing a break for a 4-3 lead after Brooksby sent ​his forehand long, and then motoring through the opening set in only 37 minutes.

World number 81 ​Brooksby looked to mix it up and drew Sinner to the net more in the next set, but ‌there would ⁠be no payoff as the four-times Grand Slam champion countered it with his superb movement and swiftly doubled his lead in the match.

A blistering backhand winner helped Brooksby break first in the next set but top seed Sinner responded immediately and held his nerve after dropping serve late on ​for a last 16 ​clash with Japanese qualifier ⁠Shintaro Mochizuki, who beat Rafael Jodar.

"I've never played him (before). Whoever is in the fourth round of a Grand Slam deserves to be there. So it's going ​to be a tough match," Sinner said.

"I know that he played against ​a very ⁠tough opponent today, so especially on this surface it's unpredictable. If you have a flat on the wrong day, it's tough to get out, so let's see.

"But, of course, I try to look more ⁠on my ​side of the net, trying to be the best as ​I can in a couple of days. I'm trying to recover as well, and then we'll see how it goes. ​But it's always special to be back here."