Sinner's statement win underlines title credentials

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.

"I think I played really well and I feel great here," Sinner said in his on-court interview. The Italian has been sharp in his first event of 2024 despite a late start to his offseason, which began after he led Italy to the Davis Cup title. "It is a little bit different but we made a good priority for the offseason. We tried to work hard, especially off the court, and I'm really happy how I'm feeling right now."

Clinical performance 🙌@janniksin cruises to an impressive 6-0 6-1 6-3 victory against Baez.@AustralianOpen | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/3fl732c9f4

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 19, 2024

Returning semi-finalist Karen Khachanov — a 6-4, 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(5) winner against 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. 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 second-most appearances by an Italian man 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)

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.