Jannik Sinner cruises past Tomas Machac in Qatar opener

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

World No. 2 Jannik Sinner kicked off his Qatar ExxonMobil Open campaign with a one-sided drubbing of Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-4, on Feb. 17, 2026, in Doha.

Weeks after suffering a heartbreaking Australian Open semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic, Sinner was more than ready for a fresh reset, dominating Machac in straight sets to advance to the Round of 16 against Alexei Popyrin.

Sinner began the Round of 32 matchup with back-to-back early break points, backstopped by a tremendous baseline defense that neutralized Machac’s wide forehand angles.

Known as a heavy topspin hitter, Machac never used that groundstroke to his advantage as Sinner wisely attacked his backhand side with deep flat forehand bombs.

Aside from his consistent baseline efficiency, Sinner also dominated Machac with booming service games, tallying seven aces in just two sets of action.

Machac earned some cheers from the crowd after finally getting on board with his lone game of the first set, but Sinner was quick to douse the upcoming fire with an instant service hold to bag a 1-0 lead.

Although Machac had some successful adjustments to turn the one-sided beating into a more competitive second-set affair, Sinner just proved to be too much, including an insane 13-shot rally winner to break the 4-all deadlock.

Unfortunately, Machac dropped his last service game, allowing Sinner to establish a 5-4 lead before serving for the match.

In just over an hour and 13 minutes of action, Sinner recorded 65 total points won, 29 on the return, including three break points.