Defending Montreal champion Jannik Sinner beats Borna Coric in return from tonsillitis

MONTREAL (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner opened his National Bank Open title defense with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Borna Coric on Thursday in the second round of the National Bank Open.

Sinner missed the Olympics because of tonsillitis after a quarterfinal loss to Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon. In January, Sinner beat Medvedev in the Australian Open final for his first Grand Slam title.

"Very happy and excited to go back on court," Sinner said. "It was a tough match, but I served quite well in important moments and returned well in the games when I broke him. So a very positive start."

Second-seeded Alexander Zverev routed Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-1 for his ATP Tour-leading 48th match victory of the year.

The night session was delayed by rain.

Earlier, the third-seeded Medvedev and eighth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas were eliminated.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Medvedev 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, and Kei Nishikori topped Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4. Medvedev, the Russian who won the 2021 U.S. Open, had 17 unforced errors and won just 32% of his second-serve points.

Fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev advanced with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Sixth-seeded Casper Ruud outlasted James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3.