Sinner survives another three-setter to make China Open quarters amid fresh doping woes

Italian Jannik Sinner, the top seed, won against Russian lucky loser Roman Safiullin 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to move into the last eight of the China Open at the Olympic Green Tennis Center in Beijing on Saturday.

Sinner battled against Safiullin for two hours, 22 minutes, saving six break points and converting four out of 13. He suffered two breaks of serves to lose the opening set.

He returned Safiullin the favour by taking the following set on the back of two breaks and completed the win with one more break-point conversion in the third.

The Italian’s win comes moments after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) challenged the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s decision in the doping case.

Sinner, ranked No 1, will play Jiri Lehecka next.

In the previous round of the Beijing tournament, the Italian defeated Chilean Nicolas Jarry (4-6, 6-3, 6-1).

Safiullin, ranked No 69, beat Swiss wildcard Stan Wawrinka (6-3, 6-4) in the first round of the Beijing tournament.

Beijing ATP 500, other second-round results (Olympic Green Tennis Center, hard, USD 3.720.165, most recent results first):

• Tallon Griekspoor vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Karen Khachanov vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Yunchaokete Bu vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Andrey Rublev vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Jiri Lehecka beat Roberto Bautista Agut (Q): 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
• Flavio Cobolli beat Pavel Kotov (Q): 6-4, 6-2

Read also

China Open: Lehecka fights back to reach quarters

Tennis Majors