Jannik Sinner cruised into the fourth round of Wimbledon after making light work of Jenson Brooksby. He recorded a dominant 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win, which proved to be his 40th triumph of the season. Though Sinner is known to generally keep his calm on the court, he got too fired up after clinching the match point and unleashed an unexpected gesture towards the crowd.

The Italian put his finger up to his ear as soon as he got the match point. Many were taken aback by this gesture at first and felt that perhaps Sinner wasn’t happy with the crowd. But the real reason why he showed that gesture was quite different.

“Here we go. Very unusual, but I needed that today,” he said during his post-match interview. “I was a break up of course, trying to serve it out, couldn’t. Then we had some match points, but we couldn’t use them. So, I tried to rush to the finish line. It helped me today. Thanks for pushing me.”

Things had been going smoothly for Sinner until the third set. After going a breakup, he earned the opportunity to serve out the match at 5-3. However, Brooksby refused to go down easily and gained a crucial break at the death. But the American would then not be able to capitalize on his own serve and got broken for the sixth time in the match as Sinner triumphed after two hours and 13 minutes.

One area where Sinner was strong once again was his serve. He only got broken twice throughout the match and fired 13 aces while committing only two double-faults. On the other hand, he was quite loose with his shots on a number of occasions and committed a total of 26 unforced errors in comparison to Brooksby’s tally of 20.

Aiming to become just the 10th man to retain the Wimbledon title in the Open Era, Sinner almost suffered a shock in the opening round to Miomir Kecmanovic. The 24-year-old was on the edge against the Serb after being down two sets to one at one stage. A reason behind this was the nasty fall that he suffered during the third set. It even led to him bleeding through his shoe.

Even though Sinner wasn’t in his best condition, he mounted an impressive comeback and clinched the next two sets to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3. His performances have been pretty convincing ever since, as he first defeated Nuno Borges 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 before getting past Brooksby in straight sets.

Sinner will be up against Shintaro Mochizuki in the fourth round of the SW19. The latter has reached the stage after upsetting Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the third round. This will be the first time that he will be facing Sinner in a tour-level match. But the Japanese isn’t quite fancying his chances as he prepares to take on the world’s No. 1.

Shintaro Mochizuki feels Jannik Sinner can “destroy” him in the upcoming clash

Mochizuki is aware that he will have to build up a good strategy in order to even have a chance of defeating Sinner. The latter is the clear favorite to win the clash.

“I don’t know him much. For me, he’s almost a celebrity,” he said during the post-match press conference. “That’s why I say it’s weird to face him. I’m convinced he’ll play very fast and try to destroy me from the first point. Honestly, if I just hit the ball, I don’t think I can win.”

The World No. 151, who has had a terrific run at the SW19 as a qualifier, is prepared to do all it takes to disrupt Sinner’s rhythm and use a playstyle that can be effective against him.

“I have to do other things to bother him, trying to distract him tennis-wise. I want to play low balls, come to the net a lot… I don’t think he’s used to facing players with that style. I think it’ll be an interesting match… or he’ll just destroy me!” he added.

Though Mochizuki has already racked up six victories in the tournament so far, Sinner may just be a step too far for him. It remains to be seen if the determined Japanese player will be able to come up with the goods against the World No. 1 on Sunday.