"Winning is the cherry on top": Sinner celebrates 20th birthday with first-round Cincinnati win

Jannik Sinner said goodbye to his teenage years with a solid 6-2, 7-5 opening win over Federico Delbonis at the Western & Southern Open on Monday. The Italian celebrated his 20th birthday by joining Tennis Channel host Prakash Amritraj following his victory over the Argentine.

Sinner couldn't have asked for a better birthday present than to be playing the game he loves at the highest level and coming out on top.

"The biggest present for me today was playing here in front of the crowd," Sinner told Tennis Channel. "Obviously getting the win makes it perfect, but for me I love playing tennis and playing in front of the crowd is already the present. But you know winning is maybe the cherry on top."

The first set went over pretty seamlessly for the world No. 15, but in the second set he couldn't convert a break point to go up two breaks. Although he struggled with first-round jitters, Sinner isn't too worried about it, in fact he thinks the tension in the second set could help him in the deeper rounds.

All in all no opening-round matches are easy, especially when it comes to maintaining composure and not letting nerves to prevail. He's happy to have stayed strong and fought past a challenging second-set test put forth by Delbonis.

Since Sinner's birthday falls directly in the middle of a Masters 1000 event, fans might think he would prefer to celebrate the day some other way. However, He's right where he wants to be and having a little pizza after the match didn't hurt.

"For me the perfect birthday is here. Hopefully I can have so many years in the USA on my birthday," he said.

Sinner will next face the winner between John Isner and Cameron Norrie. The two are set to square off on Tuesday.