France’s Hugo Gaston retires throughout his first spherical match towards Jannik Sinner on the Australian Open 2026 tennis championship in Melbourne on January 20, 2026.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
Jannik Sinner dropped simply three video games and spent little over an hour on Rod Laver Area to get his bid for an Australian Open three-peat began.
The No. 2-ranked Sinner was main 6-2, 6-1 when Hugo Gaston out of the blue retired from their match with an undisclosed harm.
“I noticed that he was not serving with a really excessive tempo within the second set,” Sinner stated, however “it isn’t the way in which you wish to win the match.”
It was an anti-climatic method to end his first aggressive match on the middle courtroom at Melbourne Park since his victory 12 months in the past over Alexander Zverev to clinch back-to-back Australian titles.
He is aiming to turn out to be the fourth participant to win three consecutive males’s titles on the Australian Open.
Madison Keys had a more durable begin to her title protection, struggling early towards the offbeat fashion of Oleksandra Oliynykova earlier than advancing 7-6 (6), 6-1.
Ninth-seeded Keys, taking part in in her fiftieth Grand Slam match, trailed 4-0 earlier than she rallied to drive a tiebreaker towards the Ukrainian.
“Clearly I used to be very nervous at first,” Keys stated. “As nervous as I used to be . . . I am actually glad to be again, and that I received via that match.”
Printed – January 20, 2026 04:11 pm IST
