By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, September 25, 2025
Photo credit: Jon Buckle/ROLEX
Jannik Sinner launched his quest to reclaim the Beijing title with a bang.
In a match of former US Open champions, Sinner broke serve four times crushing Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-2 in today’s China Open opener.
It was Sinner’s first match since bowing to Carlos Alcaraz in this month’s US Open final on September 7th.
The top-seeded Sinner won 18 of 29 points played on the Croatian’s second serve. Sinner saved the lone break point he faced.
The match was deadlocked at 2-all when Sinner surged through four games in a row to snatch the first set.
Moving Cilic corner-to-corner with blistering groundstrokes, Sinner stormed to a 5-1 second-set lead.
The reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon winner saved the only break point he faced at 30-40 in the last game before serving out a one hour, 21-minute triumph.
Launching his quest for a third straight Beijing Open final, Sinner raised his 2025 record to 38-5.
The 2023 China Open champion, Sinner fell to Carlos Alcaraz, who is playing Tokyo this week, in the 2024 final.
Sinner, who has reached finals in six of seven tournament starts this season, improved to 60-0 vs. opponents ranked outside the Top 10 on hard courts since his loss to Ben Shelton at the 2023 ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai.
The 23-year-old Italian will face 23-year-old Frenchman Terence Atmane next.
Qualifier Atmane defeated Chinese wild card Zhizhen Zhang 6-4, 6-2.
Frenchman Alexandre Muller upset fifth-seeded Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. Muller will play Fabian Marozsan next.
