NEW YORK — Jannik Sinner never gave his third-round opponent at the US Open on Saturday, Christopher O’Connell, even a moment to contemplate pulling off the sort of monumental upsets that eliminated Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner, suddenly the favorite to win the men’s championship at Flushing Meadows next weekend, won the first five games and 21 of the first 29 points to make quite clear how things would go at Arthur Ashe Stadium and wrapped up a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over O’Connell in under two hours.
“I felt like he was on from the get-go,” O’Connell said. “I felt a little bit clueless, to be honest. … Every single shot, I just felt like I had to do something with it, because he was just on me. He was suffocating me.”
Stepping on court less 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 can be in every facet of the sport. With 23-time major champion Serena Williams watching from an Ashe suite, Sinner struck 15 aces. He never faced a break point. He won five of O’Connell’s 12 service games. He finished with more than twice as many winners, 46, as unforced errors, 22.
“The best tennis player I’ve ever played, for sure,” the 30-year-old O’Connell said.
Since losing the first set he played in New York, against Mackenzie McDonald — which also was the first set Sinner had played since news emerged of a doping case that involved two positive tests in March for trace amounts of a banned anabolic steroid — the 23-year-old from Italy has performed impeccably, dropping a total of 18 games across nine sets.
“I felt like that I raised the level in the last couple of matches,” Sinner said. “Today I felt better on the court … and I executed in a very positive way.”
Trying to collect his second Grand Slam title of the year after gaining the first of his career at the Australian Open in January, Sinner will face American Tommy Paul — who defeated Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3) — in the fourth round on Monday.
“He’s great mover. He has improved a lot in the last period of time,” Sinner said of the No. 14-seeded Paul. “He plays some great tennis, especially here in America, so it’s gonna be a tough match for me.”
Perhaps there was some wariness on Sinner’s part heading into Saturday, given recent events. This is, after all, only the third time in the Open era (the…
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