Jannik Sinner beat Nuno Borges 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the third round at Wimbledon, where he will face American Jenson Brooksby next. Sinner needed two tie-breaks to shake off a stubborn Borges before pulling away in the third set.

The win comes a round after Sinner narrowly avoided a first-round upset while playing through a bloody foot injury, a detail that had briefly put his tournament in doubt.

A different kind of test

Brooksby is not a typical grass-court opponent. He plays a slow, awkward, ball-redirecting game built to frustrate rhythm players, and Sinner is exactly that: a player who wants pace and clean contact points. Matches against Brooksby tend to run long on patience even when they’re short on the clock.

Sinner has dealt with disruptive styles before and generally solved them by taking the ball early. Whether his foot holds up under that kind of lateral movement is the open question heading into round three.

The injury question hasn’t fully gone away

Sinner’s first-round scare was more than a script wobble. Playing through a foot injury against a lower-ranked opponent is the sort of thing that either resolves quietly over a few rounds or resurfaces at the worst possible time. Two tie-breaks against Borges suggest he’s not fully back to his sharpest movement yet.

Still, closing out both breaks and taking the third set in straight fashion is a good sign. Grass rewards players who serve well under pressure, and Sinner did that when it counted.

Where this fits in his tournament

A win over Brooksby would move Sinner into the second week without having dropped a set past the opening round’s early trouble. That’s the kind of form a top seed wants heading into the tougher part of the draw.

Sinner’s movement, not his opponent’s ranking, is the real variable in round three.