Sinner’s fist pump when he unfurled a pristine backhand down the line to go 5-2 up in the tie-break had an ominous feel not only for Borges, but also for the rest of the draw. After an early exchange of breaks in the third set, Sinner then closed out a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory.

Still, rivals of an optimistic bent might have detected a scintilla of vulnerability in Sinner’s first two matches this year. In his first round match, when he suffered from a bleeding right toe, Sinner needed five sets to overcome Miomir Kecmanovic.

In the opening two sets against Borges, Sinner’s forehand occasionally slipped below his normal supreme standards; he hit several inside-out forehands long or wide. Against one Borges serve in the first set, Sinner’s forehand thudded into the umpire’s chair, prompting laughs from the crowd.

To Sinner, this was no laughing matter: he admitted that his forehand was less consistent than usual, contributing to a tally of 29 unforced errors.

Sinner’s serve was also slightly less unrelenting than normal. He was broken at the start of both the second and third sets, giving Borges a glimpse of a route back into the match.

In his opening service game of the third set, Sinner hit two double faults; he then began his attempt to serve out the match with another double. To serve four double faults was lax by Sinner’s standards: he served under two per match en route to winning last year’s Championships.

This is a microcosm of the contrast between the start of Sinner’s Wimbledon this year and last. In 2025, he only dropped 17 games across the entire first three rounds; this year, he has already lost 37. He is not short of areas for improvement ahead of his third-round clash with the American Jenson Brooksby on Friday.

“My second match on grass, I was not looking for perfection,” Sinner said. “I tried to improve. I felt like at times I did.