MELBOURNE, Australia — Two sets and just over an hour of tennis wasn’t what Jannik Sinner wanted at Rod Laver Arena for the start of his bid for an Australian Open three-peat.
In his first competitive match since beating Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Finals in November, Sinner was leading 6-2, 6-1 when No. 93-ranked Hugo Gaston suddenly retired from their match Tuesday night with an undisclosed injury.
“I saw that he was not serving with a very high pace in the second set,” Sinner said, but “it’s not the way you want to win the match.”
After signaling he had to quit, Gaston went to a courtside chair and bowed his head into his hands. Sinner went to console him, putting a hand on the Frenchman’s shoulder and wishing him a speedy recovery.
For Sinner, it was an anti-climatic way to finish his first competitive match on the center court at Melbourne Park since his victory 12 months ago over Alexander Zverev to clinch back-to-back Australian titles.
He played Alcaraz in the finals of the other three majors, winning at Wimbledon and finishing runner-up at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, as the so-called Sincaraz rivals extended their dominance of Grand Slam tournaments to a second full year.
Sinner isn’t content with evenly splitting the titles with Alcaraz, though. He used his time off to concentrate on adjusting his service motion and tweaking other parts of his game in the search for incremental improvements.
“I’ve put in many, many long days in the off-season trying to become a better tennis player,” No. 2-ranked Sinner said. “But at the end of the day the most important part is to go on court and to enjoy, no? It’s very special to start the season in a night session match here in a Grand Slam, the packed stadium, just trying to do your best.”
Sinner is aiming to become the fourth player to win three consecutive men’s titles at the Australian Open.
In a match between left-handers, American Ben Shelton overcame Ugo Humbert of France 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) to reach the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Shelton was a semifinalist a year ago here and was also semifinalist at the US Open in 2023.
Eighth-seeded Shelton said it was one of the toughest first-round matches he could have faced with Humbert ranked No. 33. If Humbert was ranked 32nd or better he would not have faced a seeded player in the opening round.
“I thought I stayed really calm today,” Shelton said. “On a court like this, playing Ugo in the first round is a tough draw. I felt I found some of my better tennis late in the match.”
In other men’s matches, fifth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti advanced when Raphael Collignon of Belgium retired in the fourth set. The result was 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 3-2 when the Belgian player quit due to reported cramping and dizziness.
Also advancing were Eliot Spizzirri, who beat rising star Joao Fonseca, the 19-year-old Brazilian, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2; No. 15 Karen Khachanov; and Sebastian Baez, who outlasted Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.