Well before he shot to prominence in November with victory over Alex de Minaur at the Next Gen championships, Australian Max Purcell was already a fully-fledged member of the Jannik Sinner fan club.

Purcell had his first look at the Italian teenager during Wimbledon qualifying last year and he could not have been more impressed.

And nothing that has happened at Melbourne Park over the past couple of days, when Sinner beat the 21-year-old Purcell 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-4 in a rain-interrupted opening-round encounter at the Australian Open, has done anything to alter that opinion.

“He hits such a nice ball and he’s mentally so stable on the court,” said Purcell, who was the only one of 22 Australian hopefuls to advance from qualifying into the main draw at the Open this year.

“It motivated me to take my tennis a little bit more seriously.

“Not that I wasn’t, but there are a few one per centers where I could get more on top of.

“He showed you that one week here or one week there can really change how your year goes.

“He is flying and the sky’s the limit for him.

“I said to my manager at Wimbledon last year when (Sinner) was outside 200, I had a bet that he’d finish the year inside the top 75 and he finished up 78, so I thought I called that pretty well.”

The highlight of 2019 for Sinner was the shock triumph over de Minaur in the Next Gen final on home soil in Milan, more than doubling his career prize money in the process.

The 19-year-old was seemingly on the verge of victory against Purcell, leading by two sets to love and 4-4 in the third set when the heavens opened on Monday afternoon.

The Australian still thought he was in with a real shot on Tuesday if he could only extend their match into a fourth set.

But instead it was all over in a flash.

“I didn’t do a thing wrong,” said Purcell.

“I thought I played really well but he really didn’t do a thing wrong and that’s the way it went.”

It was a maiden grand slam match victory for Sinner, who was beaten by Stan Wawrinka on his major debut at last year’s US Open.

Less than 24 hours ago he drew high praise from Roger Federer as a rare young player able to hit the ball with equal power off the forehand and backhand wings.

“I just try to play week after week better; that’s my goal,” said Sinner.

“And obviously if I play better, the ranking will be better for sure.

“But I’m not thinking so much about the ranking.”

Fans get their next chance to see Sinner in action on Wednesday when he plays Denis Shapovalov’s first-round slayer Marton Fucsovics.