Jannik Sinner continues to dominate at the Australian Open, with his Friday win against 26th seed Sebastian Baez his most impressive yet. The Italian earned his third straight-sets victory of the tournament with an authoritative display in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 triumph against the Argentine to return to the Melbourne fourth round for the third straight year.
After not facing a break point in the second round against Jesper De Jong, Sinner saved all four against him to beat Baez in a tidy one hour, 52 minutes. The fourth seed hit 34 winners as he dictated play on both serve and return, relentlessly pulling his opponent around the baseline throughout the match.
Karen Khachanov or Tomas Machac now stands in the way of Sinner matching his best Australian Open result, his quarter-final run from 2022. He reached the fourth round last year as the 15th seed but is now playing with a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 4. Considered one of the title favourites entering the fortnight, Sinner’s blistering start Down Under has more than matched the pre-tournament hype.
Sinner has now won six straight matches dating back to the 2023 Davis Cup Finals, where he led Italy to the title. Going further back to his Vienna title run in October, Sinner is 16-1 in his past 17 matches. Two of those wins came against 10-time AO champion Novak Djokovic, whom Sinner is seeded to meet in the semi-finals.
By reaching a Grand Slam fourth round for the 11th time, he broke a tie with Matteo Berrettini for most appearances at that stage of a major. His best major result is his Wimbledon semi-final showing last season.
Most Grand Slam fourth-round appearances by an Italian man (all-time)
| Player | Appearances |
| Pietrangeli | 16 |
| Sinner | 11 |
| Berrettini | 10 |
| Merlo | 9 |
| Fognini / Panatta | 8
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Baez, playing in his third Australian Open and ninth Grand Slam, was bidding to reach the fourth round at a major for the first time. Despite the defeat, he has moved up four places to No. 25 this week in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, a mark that would be a new career-high.
The Argentine took the opening set against Sinner in their lone previous Lexus ATPHead2Head meeting last year in Shanghai, but has now lost five consecutive sets to the Italian.
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