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Jannik Sinner will climb to a career-high third in the world ranking after beating Alex de Minaur in straight sets to win the Rotterdam Open.
The Australian Open champion will become Italy’s highest-ranked male player in history after beating world number 11 De Minaur 7-5 6-4.
It is a 12th career title for Sinner, who has now won 15 consecutive matches.
“I’m really proud of the level I played at throughout this whole week,” said the 22-year-old.
“We have done a really good job some weeks ago [at the Australian Open] and now we did a very, very good job here.”
The Italian has not lost since a straight-set defeat to Novak Djokovic at the ATP Tour finals in November.
After a tight opening, Sinner broke in the fifth game of the first set to go 3-2 in front.
De Minaur, 24, then showed resilience to save two set points before breaking back in a see-saw 10th game that took more than 15 minutes to complete.
Sinner, though, broke straight back in the next game before closing out the set on his serve.
The second set was just as close but, as the Australian began to tire, Sinner made the decisive break in the seventh game to go 4-3 ahead – and it was a lead he did not relinquish.
De Minaur has now lost all seven matches against his friend and former doubles partner Sinner.
“I asked him jokingly if he’s going to lose a match this year,” said the runner-up.
“He’s playing an incredible level and just too good. I’ll get you back next time.”
