Jannik Sinner returned to winning ways at Melbourne Park on Tuesday night when his French opponent Hugo Gaston retired suddenly once the two-time defending Australian Open champion had gone ahead by two sets to love at Rod Laver Arena.
MORE: All the scores from Day 3 at AO 2026
The abrupt halt to proceedings after just over an hour on court took everyone by surprise, although the left-handed world No.93 had appeared to have taken medication from the doctor after the opening set.
Once Sinner had converted a set point to go ahead 6-2 6-1, the Frenchman approached his opponent to shake hands, and looked devastated as he left the arena at a snail’s pace.
While it’s difficult to assess exactly where the Sinner game is after such an abbreviated contest, the Italian world No.2 still had time to remind us why he is the man to beat in Melbourne this fortnight.
The second seed now has 15 straight wins at Melbourne Park, kick-starting his bid for an historic Australian Open ‘three-peat’.
If he lands a third straight AO trophy – and a fifth Grand Slam overall – he will become only the second man in the Open era after Novak Djokovic to win three consecutive Australian Open titles.
After a first competitive outing since winning the season-ending ATP Finals on home soil in Turin on November 16, next up for Sinner will be Dino Prizmic or James Duckworth.
MORE: AO 2026 men's singles draw
Afterwards in his on-court interview, Sinner told Jim Courier that although the retirement had taken him by surprise, he’d noticed Gaston wasn’t playing to his full potential.
“I saw that he was not serving with a very high pace especially in the second [set], but it’s not the way you want to win a match,” said Sinner, who hasn’t dropped a set in his past 11 matches.
“He’s such a talented player. He has incredible touch and moving very, very well, so I knew starting from the beginning that I had to play a very high level of tennis trying to be as aggressive as possible which I’ve done, so I’m very happy.
“I felt very well prepared. We worked a lot physically and on the court [during the off season]. I had one great [practice] match with Felix [Auger-Aliassime], even though it’s an exhibition we went ‘full’.
“The official matches are always very different and I’m very happy with how I started today. A bit of tension, but now it’s time to enjoy. The hard work is done. We practice for moments like this so I’m happy to be back.”
Even without Gaston’s physical problems, this match-up was always going to be a tall order for the Frenchman, and it wasn’t long before Sinner took control.
The only moment of tension came in the opening game when the second seed fell behind 0-40 on serve, but three aces helped him out of trouble. Those were the only chances that came Gaston’s way.
Serving at 2-3, the southpaw survived three break points but couldn’t see off a fourth when Sinner ripped a backhand pass to make the first move.
With Gaston up 40-15 on serve at 2-5, again Sinner struck, breaking for a second time when he moved onto a running forehand pass to convert his first set point.
Even at this stage, the Frenchman was already running out of ideas.
Without a big serve, free points were almost non-existent. If he took on Sinner from the baseline, he quickly found himself under pressure and scrambling. Rush the net, and more often than not Sinner would pick him off with a passing shot.
The top-ranked Italian quickly made it three breaks in a row – and six games on the bounce – to move ahead by a set and 2-0, and the one-sided nature of the contest continued until Gaston finally avoided a ‘bagel’ by holding serve at 0-5.
Moments later Sinner had broken for a fourth time, the set was done and Gaston shook hands after just 68 minutes on court.