NEW YORK — Jannik Sinner by no means gave his third-round opponent on the US Open on Saturday, Christopher O’Connell, even a second to ponder pulling off the form of monumental upset that eradicated Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
“It reveals that this sport is unpredictable. Everytime you drop a bit little bit of your degree — if it is psychological, if it is tennis-wise or bodily — on the finish, it has a big impact on the outcome,” Sinner mentioned. “Each opponents who they misplaced in opposition to, they performed some unimaginable tennis. And it occurs.”
To not the No. 1-ranked Sinner, who’s immediately the favourite to win the lads’s championship at Flushing Meadows. He received the primary 5 video games and 21 of the primary 29 factors to make fairly clear how issues would go at Arthur Ashe Stadium and wrapped up a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over O’Connell in beneath two hours.
“I felt like he was on from the get-go,” O’Connell mentioned. “I felt a bit bit clueless, to be sincere. … Each single shot, I simply felt like I needed to do one thing with it, as a result of he was simply on me. He was suffocating me.”
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Stepping on court docket lower than 15 hours after Djokovic’s loss to Alexei Popyrin and two days after Alcaraz’s loss to Botic van de Zandschulp, Sinner was as dominant as will be in each aspect. With 23-time main champion Serena Williams watching from an Ashe suite, Sinner struck 15 aces. He by no means confronted a break level. He received 5 of O’Connell’s 12 service video games. He completed with greater than twice as many winners, 46, as unforced errors, 22.
“The perfect tennis participant I’ve ever performed, for certain,” the 30-year-old O’Connell mentioned.
The one previous males’s champion on the US Open nonetheless within the bracket, 2021 winner Daniil Medvedev, defeated No. 31 Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Medvedev, the No. 5 seed, will face Nuno Borges, who was a degree away from elimination at 6-3 in a fourth-set tiebreaker, then rallied to beat Jakub Mensik 6-7 (5), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0.
“For certain did not anticipate to have this within the fourth spherical when Novak and Carlos are right here,” Medvedev mentioned of the remaining subject. “So, it is a enjoyable feeling from one facet, however from the opposite facet it is a new event. I must play my greatest to attempt to win it once more.”
Borges is the second Portuguese man because the Open period started in 1968 to make the spherical of 16 in New York, becoming a member of João Sousa in 2018. Borges performed faculty tennis at Mississippi State and was the ITA Nationwide Participant of the 12 months in 2019. He is one among two former faculty gamers left on the lads’s facet, together with Brandon Nakashima (Virginia).
Since shedding the primary set he performed in New York, in opposition to Mackenzie McDonald — which additionally was the primary set Sinner had performed since information emerged of a doping case that concerned two constructive exams in March for hint quantities of a banned anabolic steroid — the 23-year-old from Italy has carried out impeccably, dropping a complete of 18 video games throughout 9 units.
Making an attempt to gather his second Grand Slam title of the yr after gaining the primary of his profession on the Australian Open in January, Sinner will face No. 14 Tommy Paul of the US within the fourth spherical on Monday. Paul defeated Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
Sinner (1) def. O’Connell: 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
• Sinner has reached spherical of 16 in any respect 4 majors this season; 19 main match wins this season are tied with Carlos Alcaraz for many amongst males• 51st match win this season, 4th most by an Italian man in a season since Open period started in 1968, trailing solely himself (64 in 2023), Corrado Barazzutti (54 in 1978) and Adriano Panatta (53 in 1975)• Gained 82% of his 1st serve factors and did not drop any of his 13 service video games (did not face a break level); was damaged 6 occasions over his first 2 matches• 15 aces Saturday (had 14 aces in his first 2 matches)
— ESPN Stats & Data
“He is an important mover. He has improved quite a bit within the final time frame. It is going to be a troublesome problem,” Sinner mentioned about going through Paul, a 2023 Australian Open semifinalist. “He performs some nice tennis, particularly right here in America.”
“We have had some nice matches,” Paul mentioned. “I keep in mind I performed him on clay, had some match factors in opposition to him. Then the final match, I feel it was in Toronto, he performed superior. I did not really feel like I did an excessive amount of improper. He form of took the racket out of my fingers. I am undoubtedly going to try to, you realize, make it uncomfortable for him.”
Maybe there was wariness on Sinner’s half heading into Saturday, given current occasions. That is solely the third time within the Open period (the others have been in 1973 and 2000) that two of the highest three-seeded males have been gone earlier than the fourth spherical.
So Sinner wakened as the person thought-about likeliest to win the US Open, a standing that belonged to No. 3 Alcaraz — the champion on the French Open and Wimbledon this season — earlier than the event started. No. 2 Djokovic — the defending champ and proprietor of a males’s-record 24 main trophies — moved atop the percentages when Alcaraz was despatched house Thursday evening, solely to relinquish that after his personal early exit Friday evening.
The 87th-ranked O’Connell harbored hope of manufacturing one more shock, even when he is by no means crushed a member of the highest 10 or been previous the third spherical at a Slam.
What Van De Zandschulp and Popyrin did allowed O’Connell to dream of manufacturing one thing comparable in opposition to Sinner.
“I felt like he was on from the get-go. I felt a bit bit clueless, to be sincere. … Each single shot, I simply felt like I needed to do one thing with it, as a result of he was simply on me. He was suffocating me.”
Christopher O’Connell on going through Jannik Sinner at US Open
“I imply, yeah, I’ve received to imagine,” O’Connell mentioned, “however I simply felt that he was actually on hearth.”
There’s something fairly troublesome about attempting to comply with up one career-best win with one other, and Van De Zandschulp did not actually present up on Saturday, eradicated by No. 25 Jack Draper 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Draper, a 22-year-old left-hander from Britain, by no means has been previous the fourth spherical a serious, and neither has his subsequent opponent, unseeded Tomas Machac, a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 winner in opposition to David Goffin.
“After the match [against Alcaraz], it was a bit bit loopy,” Van De Zandschulp mentioned. “You attempt to consider the subsequent match however you get reminded plenty of the match the day earlier than. So in fact it was powerful to play in the present day after the final two days.”
In different males’s singles outcomes from Saturday, Jordan Thompson of Australia took down Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, the No. 30 seed, 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (5).
ESPN Stats & Data and The Related Press contributed to this report.
