Sinner survives scare to overcome Kecmanovic and kick-start Wimbledon title defence

[p]Victory in [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sinner-jannik/6HdC3z4H/"]Sinner[/a]'s ‌first competitive grass court match of the season following his premature French Open ‌exit last month was his ⁠94th win ‌at the Grand Slams, drawing him level with ​Nicola Pietrangeli for the most by an Italian.[/p][p][b]"First of all, ‌thank you all for coming. It's such a huge honour to be the first player to come out here on Centre Court and start the tournament,"[/b] ‌Sinner said.[/p][p][b]"It was a little tight in the ⁠beginning; I didn't play at ‌my best, but I tried to get into it. It was my ​first official match on grass, which is also a very important factor.[/b][/p][p][b]"I'm happy I turned it around because the third ​set was a very tough one to swallow."[/b][/p][embed guid="fe1edd4f-a5e4-45a8-87e4-2e4f7c0c7e4b" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdhnRTXn5ag" social-type="youtube" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/kecmanovic-m-MTQ5CPOR/sinner-j-6HdC3z4H/?mid=jJmsWr9E"]It was far ​from comfortable[/a] as Sinner lost the opening set to spark concerns among ⁠fans recalling ​his second-round shock at Roland Garros, but normal service soon resumed in the second set, which the 24-year-old secured ‌with a fiery ace.[/p][p]More tense moments followed as Sinner grimaced after a fall in ‌the next set and later had bloodstains on his shoe for a separate issue, and though he soldiered on, he crumbled in a tiebreak that looked his for the taking.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="c64f4205-2f15-48a6-894c-364f58b0d9b9" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="80dddf98-2ed8-481c-8f32-20789d0bba60" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]Sinner said the issue with his foot was not serious despite the pounding it took during his third-longest match at Wimbledon at three hours and 30 minutes.[/p][p][b]"It seems much worse than it is. I'm actually surprised that they let me keep playing because my all-white outfit turned ‌a little red,"[/b] he added, referencing Wimbledon's strict policy.[/p][p][b]"It's just a ​nail. I didn't want to disturb [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kecmanovic-miomir/MTQ5CPOR/"]Miomir[/a] either because we ‌both had good rhythm. It was a great match from both so I didn't want to take any time (off court). It's all good."[/b][/p][embed guid="ab39f4a3-91e0-42fe-9d7a-8634dccd45c9" url="https://x.com/Wimbledon/status/2071634330342834455" social-type="twitter" /][p]The four-time Grand Slam champion roared back to life and cruised through the fourth set to force a decider, where ⁠he took full control and ⁠prevailed to book a second-round ‌meeting with Portugal's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/borges-nuno/hzbEPIOa/"]Nuno Borges[/a].[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/tennis/atp-singles/wimbledon/"]Follow the men's singles at Wimbledon here.[/a][/b][/p]