World number two Jannik Sinner made a smooth start Saturday at the Miami Open, where defending champion Jakub Mensik shook off a “horrible” first set to win his opening match. Six days after he lifted the Indian Wells trophy, Sinner launched his pursuit of tennis’ “Sunshine Double” in confident style with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 76th-ranked Damir Dzumhur. “First-round matches are never easy,” said the 24-year-old Italian, who won the 2024 Miami crown. After beating Daniil Medvedev for his first Indian Wells title, Sinner is trying to become the first to sweep the Indian Wells and Miami ATP Masters 1000 titles since Roger Federer in 2017.

He pocketed the first set against Dzumhur in 34 minutes and broke the Bosnian for a 2-1 lead in the second set before breaking again on match point with a backhand winner.

“Starting off with a break straight away, I tried to be a bit aggressive,” said Sinner, who dropped just eight points on his serve. “At times it worked very well, at times I made couple of unforced errors. But I didn’t have a lot of time to adjust here. It’s very different than in Indian Wells.”

Former number one Medvedev also had little time to adjust, but he managed to fight back for a 6-7 (10/12), 6-3, 6-1 victory over 19-year-old Japanese wildcard Rei Sakamoto.

Medvedev needed two hours and four minutes to subdue Sakamoto, who was playing only his seventh tour-level match and facing his first top-10 opponent.

Mensik, who fell in the third round at Indian Wells, was feeling the after-effects of illness as well as the pressure of defending his title in a rocky first set but righted the ship to beat Australian Adam Walton 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.