Sinner drops record-tying 17 games through 3 Wimbledon matches so far

LONDON (AP) — As well as Jannik Sinner is playing at Wimbledon, he doesn't appear to need much in the way of help. Still, he got some Saturday when his opponent, Pedro Martinez, was dealing with a problematic shoulder and often put in first serves at so-so speeds.

The No. 1-ranked Sinner has dropped a record-tying total of only 17 games so far, made his way to the fourth round for the seventh consecutive Grand Slam tournament — he's collected three such trophies in that span — and never was truly in trouble during a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 52 Martinez.

"We all saw that he was struggling," Sinner said, then noted about his own form: "First week couldn't have gone better."

Sinner is the second man in the Open era, which began in 1968, to cede just 17 games through three completed matches at the All England Club. The other player to do that, Jan Kodes, ended up losing in the semifinals in 1972.

For Sinner, there's been zero sign of any sort of inability to move past last month's French Open final, which he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in five sets despite taking the first two and holding three championship points.

Against Martinez, Sinner — who returned in May from a three-month doping suspension — went up 5-0 after 20 minutes. During that stretch of 29 points, Martinez managed just one winner, while Sinner accumulated 10.

That's when Martinez took a medical timeout, and a trainer massaged the back of his right shoulder. The Spaniard was delivering first serves as slow as 76 mph, compared with Sinner's high of 133 mph.

That aspect of Martinez's game improved incrementally, but the only, ever-so-brief, moment of intrigue at Centre Court came in the second set, about 75 minutes in, with Sinner up a break and serving at 4-3. That's where Martinez managed to accrue his first four break points of the match.

Sinner stayed as calm as can be — "I don't think Sinner's changed expressions once in this match," John McEnroe observed on BBC's telecast — and erased all four of those chances, held for 5-3, then broke to end the set.

Soon enough, Sinner — twice an Australian Open champion, once a U.S. Open champion and a 2023 semifinalist at Wimbledon — was heading into a contest Monday against Grigor Dimitrov or Sebastian Ofner, whose match was delayed by rain in the second set.